What is GDPR? GDPR or General data protection regulation is a law passed by the European Union in Apr 2016, with an effective date of 25th May 2018. GDPR is officially classified as regulation 2016/679 which extends as well as replaces Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC of 1995. This regulation serves EU’s efforts to regulate, synchronise and harmonise it’s laws on citizen as well as resident’s data privacy – throughout its member states.
Who does GDPR protects?
The term “natural person” is repeated frequently in the texts and this does creates confusions on the definitions of who does this law really protects. “Natural person” here indeed refers to the citizens of the European Union, however it also extends to any resident in EU. To simplify it, all human natives to or residing inside the EU with data to protect are sheltered under the term – ‘data subjects’. GDPR focuses on the rights of these ‘data subjects’ to control as well as extensively delete and the private data. Why are you receiving lots of policy updates email? “We value your privacy and transparency, hence we would like to let you know about recent updates to our privacy policy “, is one of the common statements amongst few recent emails in your inbox. Companies who hold data of users in the EU, regardless of where they operate from are required to comply with the GDPR law. Under this rules , businesses are required to obtain consent from its users before they store or process their data, especially for marketing purposes. Users outside the EU might also receive these emails as some companies have ethically decided to apply this law to all its users.
What user rights can you expect from GDPR change?
As a part of this law , users can now expect:
- Right to Data portability.
- User’s right to access this data.
- Right to correct the information.
- Right to be forgotten.
- Right to restriction of processing.
- Right to be informed.