Since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented, changes in data protection brought forward by the EU over a year ago have had to be implemented. Businesses have had to adapt and illustrate how they will manage their clients data, ensuring such data will be kept safe and secure.

Facebook's unravelling of data protection breaches which hit the main news last year, shows that there are lessons to be learnt in the handling of individuals data. Facebook aren’t alone, British Airways were subject to investigation where some 244,000 payment cards may have been compromised during the breach, Google have faced the largest in fines to date at a whopping 44 million pounds for failing to acquire users consent for advertising. It is likely that regulators will treat data breaches more seriously by imposing heavier fines for larger businesses. It is clear that large firms will be affected, it is also important to look at how this affects the smaller businesses in our community.

Although at the moment the larger well-established organisations are very much at the forefront, hitting main news when failing to reach new regulation standards. This may serve as a brief warning to all the smaller businesses out there who may not yet meet the requirements and regulation standards. As with most things on the internet, it is a matter of time until regulators stumble into areas that will need to be met by all.

It is likely that most businesses will now have a basic understanding of compliance requirements, mainly due to the larger organisations mishandling their users data and hitting the main news. As the internet continues to grow its users are becoming savvier, people all around the globe are becoming more conscious as to how their data is handled.

Some interesting numbers since GDPR’s introduction -

• Telemarketing, promotional emails, and video surveillance were the main topics for complaints.
• Over 10,000 complaints were made in the first moth of the GDPR introduction.
• Over 60,000 complaints in the following six months.
• GDPR was at the top of Google Trends in May last year.

Whenever large fines are banded about well-known organisations, people worldwide will take notice. However, when the trend fades and gossip inevitably dies down we ask how important is GDPR? Today’s fast paced world means business owners are more than likely to be engrossed in many areas that demands their time and effort. So, the very thought of anything new can seem a little daunting. High demands are pushed upon smaller businesses these days, and naturally priorities will take precedence.

It is likely that any business owners reading this, data compliance is way down on your to do list. Even more so when news is quiet, and reports of smaller businesses being held to account for errors or data breaches aren’t mainstream. However, what may be true for today will not necessarily hold up in the future. Things change, and although we don’t see anyone pushing smaller businesses into compulsory regulatory practices yet, it is likely to be coming. Remaining vigilant is essential and updating protection for your clients will always hold you in good stead for the future.

For reasons stated above, it is easy to see how businesses can become complacent. However, keeping data protection in focus and knowing it’s highly unlikely to change will make any transition into new regulations easier and smoother. Countries world-wide such as Africa and South East Asia have introduced new data protection laws, particularly those countries wanting to do business/ trade deals with European countries.

GDPR for SEO?

Google amongst other well-known search engines are introducing more and more specifics into their algorithms, ensuring the very best search results turn up for their users.

Today we know how important keywords are for your website, amongst other variables that helps the condition of your website in the search results. Google have recently announced that websites which are mobile friendly and optimised for speed (Read our blog about SEO optimisation) will be favoured over those websites that don’t have these capabilities.

It is likely that down the road we will see Google favour websites which have up taken GDPR certificates, and those doing their own due diligence will be rewarded. Those who make the efforts into securing their clients data will be looked on favourably and ahead of the game as a business, highlighting how important they feel their customers data is to them.

By showing your clients you have up taken a GDPR certificate installs confidence in you as a company and shows you take the handling of data for your clients seriously.

What can you do now?

Making sure you know where all of the data is and how it is stored is one way to protect your customers information online, so curating your data is an essential move you can make straight away.

Creating awareness in your business is a good place to start, incorporating employee training and promoting this correctly into your social media channels does plenty in raising awareness of privacy issues both internally and externally.

Demonstrate a commitment to protecting data.

Keep up to date with compliance and regulations. Even if you aren’t incorporating this yet, it is important to see how you maybe able to in the future.

In the coming years it is likely that we will see more and more countries implementing regulations which inevitably helps with data exchange between nations, and this will highly likely see more countries do the same in the future. The main driving force of GDPR implementation globally originates from data subject rights, data breaches and accountability requirements. As we continue to learn more about privacy issues and data protection it is clear to see that this matter will not go away ad will be something that will be paramount in the years to come.

Should you have any questions or need help with any of the information discussed in this article then please get in touch via our telephone number or email contact information. Alternatively fill in our online query form and we will get back to you.