Happy GDPR week everyone! This Friday, the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force, the most ambitious data privacy ruling since, well, ever. I’m not going to go through the specifics – there are plenty of vastly overpriced seminars for that – but it’s basically about giving EU citizens more rights and control over their personal information, info on how and why it’s being collected and used, and the chance to opt out if they want. Some of this was already in law – but now there are monster fines if companies don’t comply.
You will probably know it from those endless emails. Hundreds of them, from places and people you’d completely forgotten. All of them cajoling, begging or pleading for you to ‘stay in touch’ or ‘to never let go’. They’re being sent because GDPR is about ensuring companies can’t just sweet talk you into ticking one vaguely-worded checkbox to put you on their spam list forever. I can’t be the only one who is taking a great pleasure in ignoring them all. So far, this has been the most enjoyable piece of EU legislation I can remember.
Of course, it’s much less enjoyable if you’re a business. Hard
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