Data Protection Law is Changing

You may or may not be aware that the UK Data Protection Law is changing on the 25^th of May, 2018.

Organisations, no matter how big or small, must be ready for the new regulations by this date and be aware that the new law includes the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The General Data Protection Regulation is a new, European-wide law that places greater obligations on how organisations handle personal data.

What’s new?

The new law outlines personal data to mean any information that can be used to identify an individual either directly or indirectly – in particular, any information that is referenced to as an identifier by the GDPR.

This definition provides for a wide range of personal identifiers to constitute personal data, including a person’s name, an identification number such as their national insurance number, location data or online identifier such as an email address, IP address etc.

The changes are being made to bring Data Protection Laws up-to-date with changes in technology and how organisations collect, and more importantly the need to protect, information about people.

You can find more specific detail on how the UK Information Commissioners Office constitutes personal data here.

Why is the UK taking on board European law change while leaving EU?

The UK Government was very closely involved in the development of GDPR and has taken the decision to include GDPR into the new UK Data Protection law.

This makes the UK automatically compliant with EU statute as well as providing proof to countries around the world that the UK is a safe place for personal data.

This is good for business in general, as UK businesses can prove to customers inside and outside of the UK, as well as customers living in the EU and around the world, that they take Data Protection seriously, making British business more attractive due to its stability.

What do you need to do?

You may have already started to review how you handle, interact, collect and store personal information but we thought we would provide the following information which we found helpful should you need any help.

If you are running a micro/small business or operating as a sole trader, here are a set of PDF information slides which outline what you have to think about and do prior to the new law being introduced.

If you are running a larger organisation, here are 12 steps to prepare for GDPR.

If you need to know more, you can find a huge amount of information about the new legal requirements on the UK Information Commissioners Office website here.

We strongly advise you to review these web pages so that you can gauge how much the new law and GDPR will affect you.

All of us here at Software Works For You hope that this has been of help and we look forward to continuing doing business with you.