TALKING
business
‘‘
At the onset of April 2016, the
European Parliament approved the
General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), replacing its outdated Data
Protection Directive which was introduced
way back in 1995, and the legislation
brought into force on 25 May 2018.
The uniformity in GDPR makes it unique;
unlike a directive that allows each of the 28
members of the EU to adopt and customise
the law to the needs of its citizens, GDPR
requires its full adoption with no leeway
making it compulsory for every country to
comply with. It applies to any organisation
having data of European citizens.
All organisations in the Middle East and
Africa with any connection to Europe –
whether through customers, affiliates or
business partners – are impacted by the
GDPR. The steps complying to the GDPR are
supplemented by existing measures that
many corporates in the region had adopted
as a matter of good practice or to comply
with local regimes.
Need for a law against
data collection
A lot of organisations solely depend on
customer acquisition via data collection
that helps them to target and retarget their
potential customers if they missed out on
converting them before. Google, Apple,
Facebook and Amazon hold huge amounts
of customer data and frequently have been
under the scrutiny of their users regarding
the amount of data these organisations
seek. The introduction of GDPR plays a
pivotal role in the awareness of consumers
and where they share their data now.
Antoine Harb, Team Leader Middle East
and North Africa at Kingston Technology,
said: “GDPR regulations would keep a lot of
companies under check when it comes to
regulating data. Also, GDPR could serve as
a catalyst for nations in the Middle East to
enforce stronger privacy protections and
breach disclosure requirements.”
Organisations take a step forward in
educating their employees
When such stringent laws are there
to protect consumer data; it becomes
imperative for the organisations to instill
Antoine Harb, Team Leader Middle East and
North Africa at Kingston Technology
“
WHEN SUCH
STRINGENT LAWS
ARE THERE
TO PROTECT
CONSUMER DATA;
IT BECOMES
IMPERATIVE
FOR THE
ORGANISATIONS
TO INSTILL ETHICS
INTO THEIR
EMPLOYEES.
ethics into their employees. An educated
workforce is less likely to contravene good
practice on data protection. It is a vital step
in ensuring that your employees understand
the moral code of conduct of not breaching
consumer data.
Employees must be involved in the
dialogue about how the organisations
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