GDPR
What is GDPR and how does it affect you?
GDPR is a massive change in the way personal data is collected, stored and used by companies. It is a huge minefield, one of which I have been getting my head round for the past few months to ensure that we are compliant. I will try and condense it down in to a 2 minute read for you so you can at least can get a slightly better understanding of what it is and how it can benefit you.
GDPR is a direct replacement for the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, and is coming in to force on the 25th of May 2018. It will cover the whole of the EU, and will still be applicable (albeit it will have a new name – the Data Protection Bill) once we leave the EU in March 2019. Even companies outside of the EU must comply with GDPR. It has been designed to bring data protection in to the 21st century taking in to consideration the vast amount of personal digital data currently transmitted over the internet via computers, smart phones and even smart watches every minute of every day. Under GDPR, even your IP address is now considered personal data!
It essentially gives you as an individual the right to control who you want to contact you, what information they are allowed to hold on you, how they contact you, and what they send you. You have the right at any time to request a copy of the information a company holds on you and they have one month to comply with this request or fall foul of GDPR, and that’s not pretty! You also now have the ability to request a ‘Right to be Forgotten’ if you feel that a company no longer needs to hold your information for the original purpose it was collected.
Here at ACS Automotive Recruitment Consultancy, we will be known as Data Controllers. This means that we have to state to you as our Client or Candidate exactly how we will use the data you provide to us. We have to do this in a transparent and understandable manner. Be assured that your data will never be sold by us to a third party. A full run down of this can be found in our GDPR Policy at the bottom of our website.
To process our data, we use a third party database provider, Firefish. They are our Data Processors and are responsible for keeping your information safe, secure and protected against security breaches. We are currently working very closely with Firefish to ensure that all the necessary contracts, policies and procedures are in place ready for GDPR.
Ultimately, nothing is going to change in your day to day life with GDPR, but it is there to safeguard your information now and in the future.
If you would like a full rundown of GDPR, please visit https://www.eugdpr.org/the-regulation.html or on https://ico.org.uk/