Last summer, I was rushed off my feet helping small business owners prepare
for the changes that came about through the introduction of the GDPR. No one knew quite what to expect and there was
an awful lot of scaremongering around.
A year on, Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner has marked the
first anniversary of the introduction of the GDPR with a great blog. In it she reviewed the past 12 months, the ongoing
work of the ICO and their priorities and focus for the year ahead.
For me, as a small business owner and GDPR practitioner, three key
points from her post were:
- More customers and service users have exercised their
information rights since May last year. Individuals are now far more aware of the
value of their data and want to know what organisations are doing with it. And they’re not afraid to report
organisations to the ICO if they think there’s been any wrongdoing. - Direct marketing still generates the highest
level of customer engagement but making sure your emails aren’t seen as “spam” has
been a challenge. The ICO is currently
working on a new direct marketing code which should help ensure this continues
to be a useful tool without being seen by customers as intrusive. - The ICO doesn’t just issue fines. It has a number of powers available that can
be used to take action where organisations aren’t meeting the new standards. In addition they now issue penalty notices to
organisations who have not paid the data protection fee and have issued over
3,800 of these notices in the first 6 months.
GDPR wasn’t a destination, it is an ongoing journey. Customer information and data protection
should be a key part of any small business, and while the ICO have worked hard to
provide plenty of support and guidance so that small businesses meet the
regulations without drowning in the legislation, there are no quick fixes in
making sure personal information is processed legally.
If you want to make sure that you meet the data protection regulations,
but don’t know where to start, please get in touch. We’d love to help you.
0207 294 7599 or hello@businesstamer.co.uk