GDPR – Why it’s so important to keep track of your data
After more than two years of GDPR, the honeymoon is over. A ruling in the European Court of Justice makes it perfectly clear that they do not hesitate to impose large fines.
Companies that haven’t had their unstructured data in order have been fined anywhere from tens of thousands to tens of millions of euros. GDPR is based on the right to privacy in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Authorities tighten control
The authorities responsible for privacy issues are obliged to investigate any reports or suspected violations of the GDPR. The authority is required to take action if a breach of the Data Protection Regulation is discovered, and they are compelled to choose the most powerful measure available.
In the autumn of 2020, we had a doubling of the number of fines imposed by the Swedish supervisory authority. In addition to lawyers, they are now employing technicians to be able to actively carry out the supervision work.
Higher requirements in GDPR
The requirements of the GDPR are in many cases more far-reaching than most people think. They go beyond just names and social security numbers in databases.
- Unstructured data is now regulated in the same way as databases were before. It includes files such as Word documents, PowerPoints, e-mails and physical papers in filing cabinets.
- Documentation. GDPR demands complete documentation. You must know where you have your data containing personal information, what type of personal information it is and to whom it belongs (customer, patient, employee, etc.). You must also describe the purpose associated with an internal business process.
- Sensitive personal data. Does your organization have the exceptions required to handle sensitive personal information, such as gender, sexuality, religion, and so on?
- Ability to delete data. And last but not least, your organization needs to keep track of how long you keep this personal information. You must also be able to remove it when it’s time.
Everyone has the right to obtain data about themselves
As an individual you have the right to receive extracts from mandatory documentation, to know why a company processes your personal data and how long they will store them. You also have the right to obtain all the underlying information in order to be able to judge for yourself whether the stated purpose is reasonable or not.
AI solves a problem that would have taken many years to work out
It takes 20 man-years to structure a single terabyte of data manually. With new AI technology it’s a matter of hours. We have the tool that makes the previously impossible possible – to clean up thousands of gigabytes of old data so you can say: “We meet GDPR requirements.”
