Decoding Europe’s New Data Protection Law

Decoding Europe’s New Data Protection Law

News:

1. European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) poses a serious challenge for Indian IT companies

Important Facts:

2. GDPR aims to protect EU citizens from data breaches
3. It was approved by EU Parliament in April 2016 and came to effect in May 25, 2018
4. The GDPR provides for a heavy penalty of €20 million or 4% of company’s global revenue for non-compliance
5. Any organisation providing goods and services to EU comes under the ambit of GDPR. In India, a major focus is on IT/ITES companies which account for 7% of GDP
6. In India, many IT organizations are not prepared for GDPR compliance. Only 30-35% has started work towards achieving GDPR compliance
7. Large Indian IT companies are well prepared due to economies of scale. However, the impact of GDPR on SMEs and start-ups is a concern as the cost of compliance for them is high
8. The introduction of GDPR will positively impact on the way data is handled by companies and will boost consumer trust
9. In India, there has been a rise in demand and application for data protection jobs since 2017 and is expected to continue so after the introduction of GDPR
10. Recently, Mauritius has also introduced strong data protection law in the lines of GDPR. Further, India has also been working on data protection law- some of the attributes of the draft policy are supposed to be similar to GDPR