If your email inbox is like mine, it's recently been flooded with messages from companies you’ve done online business with about changes in their terms and conditions, particularly regarding privacy. What has prompted this wave of notices is the May 25 implementation of Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Approved by the European Parliament in April 2016 after considerable debate, the regulation standardizes data privacy regulations across Europe for the protection of EU citizens.
The regulation applies to both data "controllers" and data "processors." A data controller is the organization that owns the data, while the data processor is an outside company that helps to manage or process that data. The focus of the GDPR requirements is on controllers and processors directly conducting business in the 28 countries that make up the European Union (EU). But the GDPR has the potential to affect businesses based in any country, including the United States, that collect or process the personal data of any EU citizen. Penalties for noncompliance can be quite severe. For that reason, many companies are choosing to err on the side of caution and sending to all their customers notices of changes to their privacy disclosure terms and conditions. Some companies have even gone so far as to provide the privacy protections contained in the GDPR to all their customers, EU citizens or not.
The GDPR has a number of major consumer protections:
- Individuals can request that controllers erase all information collected on them that is not required for transaction processing. They can also ask the controller to stop companies from distributing that data any further and, with some exceptions, have third parties stop processing the data. (This provision is known as "data erasure" or the "right to be forgotten.")
- Companies must design information technology systems to include privacy protection features. In addition, they must have a robust notification system in place for when breaches occur. After a breach, the data processor must notify the data controller "without undue delay." When the breach threatens "risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals," the data controller must notify the supervisory authority within 72 hours of discovery of the breach. Data controllers must also notify "without undue delay" the individuals whose information has been affected.
- Individuals can request to be informed if the companies are obtaining their personal data and, if so, how they will use that data. Individual also have the right to obtain without charge electronic copies of collected data, and they may send that data to another company if they choose.
In addition, the GDPR requires large processing companies, as well as public authorities and other specified businesses, to designate a data protection officer to oversee the companies' compliance with the GDPR.
There have been numerous efforts in the United States to pass uniform privacy legislation, with little or no change. My colleague Doug King authored a post back in May 2015 about three cybersecurity bills under consideration that included privacy rights. Three years later, for each bill, either action has been suspended or it's still in committee. It will be interesting to see, as the influence of the GDPR spreads globally, whether there will be any additional efforts to pass similar legislation in the United States. What do you think?
And by the way, fraudsters are always looking for opportunities to install malware on your phones and other devices. We've heard reports of the criminal element using "update notice" emails. The messages, which appear to be legitimate, want the unsuspecting recipient to click on a link or open an attachment containing malware or a virus. So be careful!
By David Lott, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed