This article is about the feeding frenzy taking place, how to avoid it and what to look out for in the run up to GDPR lift off.
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The vultures have been circling for some time now.
Plenty of people are putting the frighteners on good people that just want to survive the supposed relentlessness of heavily armed Data Commissioners issuing fines aplenty. Which will not actually happen. The ICO simply haven’t got enough resources to do that. Much like other agencies that are not for profit.
Speaking of which, it is those that are for profit that we need to be wary of. I’ve received several updated contracts from insurance companies dictating how data issues need to be resolved. My first piece of advice is to establish what your partners expect of you because, whilst the data commissioner might give you 72 hours to report certain types of breach, I am now contractually bound to give others 24 hours notice. Probably because they want the lions share of the deadline to get themselves ready. They also insist on certain types of data security and issue tight deadlines on “data subject access requests”. Cheeky but true.
So have you read all your contracts recently?
At least some of our partners are decent enough to tell us they’re being updated. Other contracts, like insurance policies, already cater for the change with clever wording. Where it states that they expect you to be complying with the law it actually means that as soon as the law changes, you have to be compliant with the new one. They don’t need to wait for the renewal of a contract to make you keep up with legislation. They’ve already taken care of it.
Are you going to read all your supplier or partner contracts? Probably not. Who has the time? I hear you sigh! Keep these in mind when you are changing your policies that are affected by GDPR. There might be a clash. You might want to notify them with 72 hours, yet they might stipulate immediately. Forewarned is forearmed and I don’t think fines are going to cause the biggest headache. I think it will be interruptions to business and loss of reputation and/or clients.
Government crack the whip
I have a feeling that the government announcement last week, that it would try and reduce the compensation culture by cracking down (again) on so called “whiplash” claims, might fuel the class action culture that Morrisons supermarkets find themselves subject to. There are a lot of companies that rely on that revenue stream (it’s in the billions) and they will switch to the next as quick as they went from PPI to holiday sickness claims. And PPI is coming to an end.
Wrap Up: We’re not overly concerned about the deadlines imposed by our supply chain because we have the resources to cope with them. Yet we’re very pleased we know what they are because a data breach causes enough confusion on it’s own.
Top Tip
Once you’ve assessed your position, review your contracts to see what else you might need to weave in. This is a once in 20 year opportunity to engage with your stakeholders. Done well, it will build trust regarding data and how you want to keep it safe. That trust is gold dust in the current climate.
