The terrifying truth about GDPR and your business

You could face a fine of up to 2% of your annual turnover.

Do you hold any personal information about your customers, suppliers or employees that are based within the eu? Then you need to prepare your business for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into force on May 25th 2018.

Think of GDPR as the second version of the 1998 Data Protection Act, with a central mission to protect people’s privacy and data (including yours) from being used in ways that they haven’t approved.

Individuals now have to give explicit consent for your business to store and process their data (e.g. sending them a marketing email). It’s not enough to have a clause hidden away in your Terms and Conditions - consent should be demonstrable. In other words your business needs to be able to clearly show how consent was gained and when.

European businesses won't be allowed to work with you unless you're compliant

Unfortunately being compliant with GDPR is not easy. You’ll get conflicting view points and advice, and the interpretation of the rules can vary dramatically.

Flybe and Honda got fined for trying to comply with GDPR. Honda simply sent an email to their customers asking them to update their marketing preferences, but as they didn’t have evidence that the recipients had opted-in to receive this kind of email, they got fined.

Ignoring it won't give you shelter you and thinking you're too small to be of interest to the E.U. won't hide you

Although the names mentioned are well known brands, examples will be made of businesses of all sizes. Your first step in preparing for GDPR should be to visit https://ultimategdprquiz.com/ - the questions this quiz poses will reveal what is required of you and your business moving forward.

Take the GDPR quiz

At Holly Social, we're fanatical about protecting your privacy and are fully ready for GDPR. If you'd like to know more, please get in touch!