Taking 25 May 2018 as the first day of validity of the European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) following the two-year transition period, 1 September 2018 marks 100 days of the new law – an opportunity for an initial review. How are things going with the EU GDPR? Job Wizards listened to what people had to say and did some online research.
The biggest challenge for small and medium-sized businesses – documentation and reporting procedures
The 100-day review from the German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW) is critical: ‘The authorities are overwhelmed as there are too few members of staff for the number of enquiries, entrepreneurs are still uncertain, as there are many unanswered questions about GDPR, and politicians don’t know what to do,’ reports Eberhard Vogt, Press Officer for the BVMW. He continues: ‘Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t know what they should and should not do according to the regulation: do I have to document this process? Do I have to register these plans with the authorities or not – which, by the way, is another reason the authorities are overwhelmed, because to stay on the safe side entrepreneurs are transferring almost everything. Furthermore, different interpretations of the regulation exist in the individual federal states.’ The provisional summary is: ‘What entrepreneurs need is a GDPR road map approved by all the authorities.’
Positive trend: three-quarters of all companies intend to fulfil the GDPR standards by the end of 2018
‘Small and medium-sized companies in particular had difficulty adjusting to the new General Data Protection Regulation rules. In many cases, it used up a lot of time, patience and money,’ says Fabian Wehnert, head of the department for small, medium-sized and family companies at the Federation of German Industries (BDI), regarding the experiences of SMEs in Germany. Nevertheless, the EU GDPR is ‘a milestone, as for the first time there is a shared data protection standard for all companies and all other institutions in Europe,’ Fabian Wehnert adds.
Apparently, most entrepreneurs share that view, as a study recently published in the USA* shows that – even if not all companies in Europe and the USA managed to implement GDPR on time by 25 May – 96% have begun implementation and 74% expect to meet the standards by the end of 2018. 93% intend to reach this goal over the course of 2019. An initial inventory with which data protectors can be very satisfied.
