Abstract
When GDPR first became a concern, business professionals did not immediately take it too seriously. It certainly did not escalate to the level of a full organization-wide initiative on a product roadmap.
After 3+ years in existence and enforcement, information can be gathered to determine the biggest fines —and speculate as to how they could have been avoided.
Background
It may be a gross generalization, but in my own experience, when prioritizing implementation could no longer avoided, the prevalent interpretation of the Regulation was that sites needed to have a "toast message" to allow a user to acknowledge the use of cookies. Occasionally, it was identified that the "privacy page" —assuming one existed —should describe (or at least mention) the use of cookies and provide an email address for privacy-related questions.
While that was the scope of preparation in many companies, given that the Regulation itself is 88 pages, it seemed that there must be more needed. (There were doubtless multiple heated exchanges on the subject.) In the U.S., corporate attitudes skewed toward viewing these privacy regulations as a nuisance, somewhat catering to EU nations. The mindset that an individual owns his/her own data, remaining in control even when that data is in use by the company, was a confusing shift. —In many ways, the same remains true today.
NOTE: Before proceeding to discussion of Enforcement & Fines, please note that the Regulation provides a set of definitions for fairly common words and terms, specifying their meaning as related to GDPR. As some are integral for a shared understanding of intent, they have been posted here for ease of access.
Enforcement & Fines
After 3+ years, organizations are still struggling to understand GDPR and its nuances. Ultimately, this is not surprising, given that "data privacy" is somewhat of a moving target itself. When considering the larger digital landscape, transformational initiatives, and ever-increasing cyber threats, it is difficult to do more than react. Even so, penalties and fines are scaling apace.
Republished with permission from eruditeMETA, ©2022. All rights reserved.
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