Preparing your business for General Data Protection Regulation

The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on 25 May 2018.

GDPR regulation aims to enhance the ability of EU citizens to exercise rights over their personal information and imposes stricter requirements on all business activities involving data. It will impact all companies in the Middle East, and anywhere else in the world, that trade with EU-based businesses or are offering products or services to EU-based individuals.

Increased territorial scope and penalties

GDPR supersedes the previous Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) to address modern privacy concerns and facilitates consistency across the EU. Organisations will have to move quickly to avoid potentially large fines for non-compliance of upto €20 million or 4% of annual revenue, whichever is greater.

The new regulation introduces changes. In this article [PDF] [ 1086 kb ], we outline what this means for your business and how to get ready for GDPR.

Alternatively, view our infographic [PDF] [ 139 kb ] summarising GDPR and the questions you can ask yourself as you prepare.

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