Europe’s GDPR gives personal data a new rulebook
The General Data Protection Regulation begins applying across the European Union, expanding individual rights and imposing stricter duties on organizations handling personal information.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation became applicable today after a two-year preparation period. It harmonizes data-protection rules across member states and reaches some organizations outside Europe when they offer services to people in the Union.
The regulation strengthens rights to access, correct and erase personal data, and requires clearer grounds for collecting and processing it. Organizations must report certain breaches promptly, document their practices and design privacy safeguards into systems. Serious violations can bring substantial administrative fines.
For internet users, the immediate evidence may be a flood of privacy notices and consent requests. The larger change is that information about a person carries continuing obligations after collection. Enforcement, court decisions and national regulators will determine the practical boundaries, but privacy work can no longer be treated as a small legal footnote.
Source: European Commission ↗