Is Your Company Prepared for GDPR? What You Need to Know

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation set in place by the European Parliament to fortify and unify data protection within the EU. The regulation applies to all companies, regardless of their location or market, that process personal data within the European market or offer services for the European market. GDPR's goal is to ensure transparency and people's control of their data. It also aims to harmonize data protection regulations across EU members states by requiring adequate technical and organizational measures to protect the data. Companies who violate GDPR may face charges up to 4 percent of their worldwide revenue or 20 million Euros. GDPR forces companies to inform people before collecting their personal data, obtain explicit consent from them, and offer the right to delete or access the stored data. The regulation applies to processing personal data of persons who are in the EU as long as the processing activities relate to the offering of goods or services to such persons or to monitoring their behavior within the EU. Compliance with the regulation requires implementing processes, and it is up to the companies to decide how to implement them.