For global organizations as well as organizations in the EU, the GDPR has brought significant attention and resources to privacy.  Finally, many executives are beginning to take privacy seriously.  As I recently wrote in my article, Prime Time for Privacy, at Bloomberg Law:

The GDPR has taken privacy to the next level. Before the GDPR, nothing had fully gelled around what protecting privacy actually entailed. The consequences of poor privacy were also rather vague in many cases. There was no clear blueprint for protecting privacy. Organizations would do just one or two things, such as provide a notice of privacy practices and keep data secure, and then claim they were protecting privacy. But they were only doing a fraction of what was truly needed to protect privacy.

The GDPR has changed all that. It provides a blueprint for protecting data that is more thorough and complete than nearly any other privacy law. The GDPR contains provisions that require governance measures, data mapping, assessment, data protection by design, and vendor management, among other things. It provides for individual rights such as the right to access one’s data, the right to request restrictions on data use, the right to be forgotten, and the right to data portability. The GDPR has a broad definition of personal data, and it applies across different industries, so it provides a comprehensive baseline of privacy protection.

Now, privacy professionals can point to a definitive source of the various norms, best practices, standards, and rules that have long existed in fragmentary form. The GDPR has penalties that will keep the CEO awake at night. Privacy professionals can point to it and say, “This is what we need to do, and this is why.”

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This is a momentous week.  On Friday, May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will begin being enforced. Organizations are racing against the clock to be prepared.  What will the day look like when the sun rises on May 25?

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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has actually been with us for quite a long time (in various forms), but this month is the moment of truth.  On May 25, the GDPR will start being enforced.

Here’s a quick timeline of the evolution of the GDPR:

October 1995:  Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) is adopted.  The majority of the rules of the GDPR are the same or similar to those of the Data Protection Directive. Thus, much of the GDPR has been with us for more than 20 years.

January 2012: First Draft of GDPR is released.

March 2014: European Parliament votes to support the GDPR.

December 2015: The Trilogue (EU Commission, European Parliament, and EU Council of Ministers) reaches an agreement about the GDPR.

April 2016: European Parliament and Council of the EU formally adopt the GDPR.  There will be a 2-year grace period until the GDPR is enforced.

May 2018: GDPR enforcement begins on May 25.

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