Most companies aren’t going to hit Europe’s GDPR deadline (also what’s that)

A majority of companies believe they will not meet the GDPR compliance deadline on May 25th. Here’s why -- and what that means.

The General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect on May 25, and according to a new study conducted by Crowd Research Partners, 60% of companies are unlikely to meet the deadline for compliance with the new European GDPR legislation.

Most companies aren’t going to hit Europe’s GDPR deadline (also what’s that)

Lost you at GDPR?

The GDPR is a regulation proposed in 2012 that will force all companies to divulge any data breach — be it cyber attack, human error, or otherwise — to the relevant party within 72 hours.

In other words, in the EU there will be no more “Hey guys, it’s Uber, someone hacked our systems and stole all of your data… 2 years ago.”

Failure to comply could result in fines ranging anywhere from 10m euros to billions, depending on the severity of the breach.

Looking up for consumers

As we all become increasingly desensitized to hackers stealing our personal info (as we speak, we assume), the GDPR aims to give EU citizens more control over their data — and how it’s being processed by companies.

This includes the choice to opt out of the data trade, allowing users to say, “Hey Facebook, I heard you’re sharing my data with third parties, I’d rather you not. Thanks.”

But 43% of companies fear they lack the staff to meet compliance…

And on top of that, 56% expect their data governance budget to increase significantly as they shoehorn the regulation into their daily routine.

But, the government maintains that having a “single supervisor authority” for the entire EU will actually save companies 2.3B euros across Europe.

Think European, act globally

The GDPR will apply to international companies doing business with EU members — and it may inspire other countries to follow suit.

Facebook for instance, plans to implement the GDPR transparency and notification guidelines for every one of their users.

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