08 May The GDPR: What You Need to Know About Social Media Security
After the Facebook data scandal was brought to headlines this year, social media users immediately grew concerned for their privacy. The EU is taking steps to protect their citizens’ data with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Social Spice Media takes a closer look at the GDPR, its goals, and why it matters for organizations to comply with the new regulation.
What is the GDPR?
The
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new set of rules that organizations must comply with to protect EU citizens. You may have noticed recently that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and similar channels have updated their privacy policy. These updates were no coincidence, as data collecting and sharing platforms are in a hurry to get compliant with the new rules by the May 25
th deadline imposed this year.
Once the GDPR goes into effect on this date, anyone who is non-compliant will be subject to immense
fines. The lower level fines are estimated to cost up to €10 million, but upper level violations can cost up to €20 million. The goal of the GDPR is to create data protection laws for all people to ensure a reasonable level of privacy is maintained for individuals by informing users how their data is being collected and used.
How can you prepare for the GDPR?
The
Information Commissioner’s Office released a useful guide to help organizations get a better understanding of what they need to do in order to ensure compliance with the GDPR’s rules. There is a list of 12 steps to help you make sure you are prepared for the fast-approaching deadline. These include:
- Awareness
- Information you hold
- Communicating privacy information
- Individuals’ right
- Subject access requests
- Lawful basis for processing personal data
- Consent
- Children
- Data breaches
- Data Protection by Design and Data Protection Impact Assessments
- Data Protection Officers
- International
The point of the list is to help organizations give users a better understanding of how their information is being collected, stored, and possibly shared.
What is protected under the GDPR?
There are several types of data that are protected under the GDPR.
CSO provides a list of the data that would be protected under the new regulations. A few of these include:
- Name, address, ID numbers, and any types of basic identity information
- Location, IP address, cookies, and other types of web data
- Political, racial, and ethnic data
Organizations that are required to comply are any that process data from European citizens and have a presence in an EU country. There are specific details for companies based on size and specific data-processing activity to determine whether or not they must conform to the rules. We are interested to see how the GDPR impacts our digital future and if it will enact a positive change in the social sphere.
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