What Is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the predominant law for data protection and privacy across the European Union (EU). In this post, you’ll find out why the GDPR was implemented, what types of information it protects, and what its key principles are.

Read on for a full understanding of the GDPR, how failure to comply can affect your organization, and which steps you should take to ensure compliance.

What is the GDPR?

The GDPR is a data privacy regulation that was implemented throughout the EU on May 25, 2018. It establishes comprehensive standards that govern how organizations must handle the personal information of individuals in the EU, from data collection to storage and processing.

The history behind the GDPR

Before the GDPR, the personal data of individuals located in the EU was protected by the Data Protection Directive. This legislation was enacted in October 1995, when e-commerce was just beginning to develop. In 2012, the Council of the European Union started discussions regarding strengthening data privacy laws. This move came in response to the increasing number of data breaches worldwide and the criticism of corporations for their poor management of user data.

EU leaders aimed to introduce a regulation that would bring consistency to privacy laws across member states, while addressing the ways modern businesses store, collect, and transfer personal data. After nearly four years of development, the EU finalized the GDPR and obliged the entities it concerned to comply with its requirements by May 2018.

What data does the GDPR protect?

The types of data GDPR protects: 

• Personal data — Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes direct identifiers, such as a name, identification number, location data, an online identifier, or one or more factors specific to that natural person’s physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity.
• Special categories of personal data — Data that require additional protection under GDPR due to their sensitivity. This includes information about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data used for identification, health information, sex life, or sexual orientation.

Core principles of the GDPR

The GDPR is built upon a set of key principles designed to protect individual’s personal data and ensure its responsible use. The principles are as follows:

1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency — Organizations must process personal data lawfully and fairly, while providing individuals with full transparency about how their data is collected, used, and shared.
2. Purpose limitation — Organizations can only collect data that serves specific, lawful purposes, and any further processing must remain consistent with those initial objectives.
3. Data minimization — Organizations must ensure that only essential data required for specific purposes is obtained, avoiding the collection of any unnecessary or irrelevant information.
4. Accuracy — Organizations are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of personal data and must swiftly correct any mistakes or outdated information.
5. Storage limitation — Organizations must keep the data only for the time required to fulfill its intended purpose, after which they should delete it.
6. Integrity and confidentiality — Organizations are responsible for safeguarding personal data by employing effective measures to prevent unauthorized access, tampering, loss, or damage.
7. Accountability — Organizations are accountable for complying with the GDPR’s principles and demonstrating compliance through appropriate documentation and audits.

These principles serve as the foundation for compliant data processing activities within the EU and beyond.

What if you don’t comply?

First of all, you need to understand if the GDPR affects your organization. Basically, your organization is obliged to comply with the GDPR if it:

• Operates in any EU member country. 
• Processes the personal data of individuals located in the EU, regardless of the organization’s location.

For the full list of countries covered by the GPDR, refer to this dedicated article.

If your organization falls within the scope of the GDPR but you fail to comply with its requirements, you can face significant penalties. The fines for violating the GDPR fall into two categories:

In addition to fines, your organization could face significant reputational damage, which may result in lost customer trust and revenue. Non-compliance with the GDPR may also leave the door open to data breaches, leading to lawsuits against your organization from affected individuals or entities.

How to comply with the GDPR?

Complying with the GDPR requires a comprehensive approach. The following steps can help you kick off your journey towards GDPR compliance:

1. Know what data you collect

Start by identifying the personal data your organization collects. Inventory all types, from customer data to employee information, and map out where it’s stored and how it’s processed. Classify data according to how sensitive it is and how easy it is to identify an individual with that information. Mapping and classification will make it easier to define what measures you should use to safeguard specific types of data.

2. Involve all stakeholders

Engage all departments across your organization, from IT and legal to marketing and human resources, in your GDPR compliance efforts. By fostering a culture of data protection awareness, you ensure that everyone understands their team’s role in maintaining GDPR compliance so no sensitive personal information is overlooked.

3. Appoint a DPO

Appoint an existing employee or hire someone from outside the organization to be your data protection officer (DPO). The DPO’s role is to ensure that your organization processes the personal data of staff, customers, service providers, and other individuals in compliance with the relevant data protection rules. Even if appointing a DPO is not mandatory for your organization, consider doing it to strengthen your data protection strategy.

4. Assess risks regularly

Regular risk assessments can help you identify potential vulnerabilities that may compromise data security. Evaluate your data processing activities, systems, and supply chain to spot any weak points in your data protection framework. This will help you identify and address gaps in data security.

5. Create a data protection plan

Develop a comprehensive document that describes how your organization handles personal data, including collection, processing, storage, and deletion practices. Specify the measures your organization takes or will take to secure data. Regularly update this plan to reflect changes to your data processing methods and updates to regulatory requirements.

6. Adopt proper data security measures

Ensure that your organization has both the technical and organizational safeguards in place to implement your data protection plan. Apply robust security measures like multi-factor authentication, access management, user activity monitoring, data encryption, firewalls, and data backups.

7. Document compliance actions

Keep meticulous records of the actions  your organization takes to ensure GDPR compliance. Keep track of data flows throughout your organization, the results of risk assessments, the security measures you implement, and the staff training you provide. Well-maintained documentation helps you prove your compliance strategies during audits.

8. Plan for incident response

A well-prepared incident response plan enables you to quickly and efficiently address any data breach. This plan should outline the required steps to detect, contain, and mitigate cybersecurity incidents while ensuring communication with relevant stakeholders. A clear response plan can help prevent small incidents from escalating and ensure your organization manages breaches according to GDPR requirements.

9. Report data breaches on time

Under the GDPR, your organization is required to report any data breach to the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours after identifying it. In your report, outline the details of the data breach, including the estimated number of personal records affected, the potential impact, and the steps you’re taking to mitigate the consequences. Additionally, provide contact information for your DPO or a qualified representative who can provide more details.

Syteca is a cybersecurity platform that can help you streamline GDPR compliance by enabling you to:

• Protect sensitive data by managing access to critical endpoints
• Monitor how employees and third parties process sensitive personal data
• Swiftly detect and respond to security threats
• Pseudonymize the personal data of your employees