Essential insights into the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect on May 25th of this year, has brought about significant changes in data protection measures for businesses worldwide.

One of the key requirements of GDPR is for businesses to anonymize routinely collected data and implement data protection measures in their operations. This means that companies are switching to user opt-in consent for protecting EU citizens' data records.

Many US-American companies, such as Google LLC and Microsoft Corporation, have responded to this regulation by creating separate sites for European traffic. These companies collect personally identifiable information or persistent identifiers only from non-EU visitors, ensuring compliance with GDPR and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Microsoft has taken this a step further by extending Data Subject Rights from GDPR to all of its consumer customers worldwide. This means that users, regardless of their location, now have the right to request deletion and stop sharing of their data, and third-party firms to stop using it as well.

Companies responsible for securing data collected from users, especially if it is being retained or sold to third parties, are under increased scrutiny due to GDPR enforcement. Some companies have faced criticism for not being prepared for GDPR, despite knowing the effective date since 2016.

GDPR mandates reporting certain types of data breaches to a supervisory authority within 72 hours and to the victims soon thereafter. To address this, companies may improve their processes for detecting and addressing data breaches.

In addition, companies may increase spending on security firms offering penetration testing to ensure secure customer portals. Some U.S. sites have blocked EU traffic altogether, while others are creating separate sites for EU traffic, only collecting personally identifiable information from non-EU visitors.

The enforcement of GDPR has also had an impact on U.S. privacy policies. On the first day of GDPR enforcement, Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram were hit with lawsuits alleging data collection, sharing, and use for targeted advertising.

Some European organizations are taking proactive steps to address data protection concerns. They are opening up bug bounty programs to crowdsource security and allow citizens to find critical bugs in their companies before bad actors do.

In conclusion, the GDPR has brought about a significant shift in data protection policies, with companies worldwide adapting to the new regulations to ensure compliance and protect the privacy of their users. As enforcement continues, it is expected that these changes will continue to evolve and grow.