EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

I’m sure that the gripping title of this news features will have attracted your attention! No? Ok ………but, unfortunately, it’s something that you really need to know about.

The EU the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will update existing data protection legislation when it comes into effect in May 2018; this is despite our impending exit from the EU.

It is designed to harmonise all data privacy laws across Europe, including the UK, with the aim of protecting and empowering all UK and EU citizens to preserve their data privacy.

GDPR will determine the way in which organisations, including retailers, obtain, handle and hold any data that they have gathered about customers. If you run a loyalty card programme, have a club card scheme and/or have a CRM system you need to know about this legislation.

We will soon be making changes to our innovative WinRetail package to help users to comply with the new regulation. In addition, at least one of our team will be attending an approved course, so that we can offer advice and guidance, ensuring that you can stay ‘ahead of the game’.

Some of the important GDPR obligations include:

1. You must obtain explicit consent to gather information from individual (known as Data Subjects) – and be able to prove that you have done so. Consent is limited to specific purposes, and data subjects have the right to withdraw consent at any time.
2. Data subjects will have the right to access and obtain data, allowing them to request access to information held about them, and to learn how it is accessed, the purpose of the access, where it is being accessed, what categories of data are being accessed and who has access.
3. There will be a right to erasure, which will give data subjects the right to request the deletion of personal data if they do not wish to allow its use.
4. Data subjects will also have the right of rectification and of objection to profiling, granting them the right to request corrections in personal data if it is inaccurate. It will also allow them to object to profiling that could result in discrimination against them.

The above is an overview of the impact of GDPR; we will be providing  more detailed information over the next few months.