Even under the current (and notoriously out of date) Data Protection Act, many companies still do not wholly comply with the laws. For example, the ICO recently announced that a recruitment manager was fined just under £1000 for illegally sharing CVs containing personal data with another recruitment company. And while this is quite a blatant breach, with the new GDPR laws coming into effect, an accidental breach can be just as likely if you’re not stringent.

In terms of personal data, it will no longer be enough to just not pass on information to third parties or password protect your computer, you will be responsible for ensuring data is completely secure too. And something which you may not realise is a criminal offence could end up costing you a lot more than just your job.

The new level of required protection could mean something seemingly trivial, such as printing documents with personal information, requires more strict processes.

Picture the scene: You print off a couple of confidential documents for your next meeting from the office computer, but before you get a chance to go and pick them up the phone rings and next thing you know, you’re side-tracked for 15 minutes. During that time, a colleague from another area of the business has picked up your documents from the printer with theirs and are happily on their way to their next meeting too, taking the personal information along with them.

Feels like a bit of a nuisance, doesn’t it? However, as of May 2017 it’s more than just a nuisance. The situation described above is a breach of GDPR regulations and could lead to excessive fines.

We know it all sounds a little dramatic. But with potential fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of global turnover (whichever is highest!) on the horizon, that £1,000 fine starts to feel a bit like pocket change, doesn’t it?

So if you want to know if your systems comply, we can help. Give us a call for a no obligation chat.