U.S. Websites Go Dark in Europe as GDPR Data Rules Kick In

New European law foresees steep fines for companies that don’t comply with rules

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Facts: GDPR Which is a Data protection law passed by the European Union. It was introduced on Jan 2012 and starts to go into effect on May 2018.  GDPR requires every large company to have a Data Privacy Officer who is required to report to the E.U. any break-ins of large data and management of customer data. Enforcement will be done with a 2-5% of revenue fine with EU courts.

Analysis:  Lots of companies such as Large retail companies (Supermarkets, Online shopping websites), Media companies (news websites)  Social Media companies ( twitter, facebook) , have stored customer data such as buying preferences and credit card data.

All of these data will need a D.P. Officer to overlook the management of data and protection of it. Companies that do not abide by the rules will have to shut off internet access for the whole E.U. Region.

D.P. Officer will also have to work with their tech teams to ensure data protection is done at the software and hardware level. Data breaches will be fined at 2% of company revenue, which if not paid can not continue doing business in the E.U.

Conclusion: Lots of data protection for clients due to many customers losing swaths of credit card data to hackers. Increased workforce costs to abide by regulations for large companies. Doing business in E.U. just got a little bit more expensive.