“People to have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age” under new measures announced by Digital Minister Matt Hancock.

You would have to be from another planet to not, at least, have heard the phrase GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). But what is it and how does it affect you?

We’re all busy so, using the government guidelines, we have put together the bare bones of GDPR and what you need to have in place to ensure you don’t fall foul of the new laws as fines for non-compliance can be as high as €20M or 4% of annual revenue. Also, GDPR is still relevant, despite Brexit. It is a UK government backed regulation and furthermore, compliancy is vital if your business works outside of the UK. Laws aside, GDPR makes excellent business practice.

Where is your company’s data?

Understand what data you store and where it is located. This extends to any contact information you hold on anyone, anywhere in your business from central servers to databases on individual computers.

Make sure the data you hold is compliant

This means making sure that the data you hold is compliant, i.e. that it falls within all of the government guidelines for GDPR and data collection and also that you have gained permission to keep this information. Permission must have come directly from everyone on any list you maintain.

Secure your data

It is vital that you have taken steps to prevent the data being breached, lost or damaged. This is probably one of the most important areas of GDPR and is intended to prevent the careless leakage of people’s personal information.

Show accountability

As part of a GDPR check, you will need to show how you manage your data with all of the relevant audit trails and monitors in place.

As we said at the start, this all makes for excellent business practice and it’s something we’ve inbuilt into docSAFE with layers of security and a deep understanding of how it needs to work to show your company is compliant and, just as importantly, professional and efficient. Talk to us and we can steer you through the challenges of GDPR.

Yes we do go on about this quite a lot but with good reason! If you can offer an online signing facility, you speed things up no end, avoid unnecessary meeting time (save that valuable time for things that matter), no waiting on the post and you look incredibly cutting edge (and ahead of the game) at the same time.

For us, online signing is safe, secure and complete no-brainer.

It sounds a bit of a mouthful but in IT security terms, it is beautifully simple. For years now we have come to expect online access to anything containing our personal details to include an email address and password. That is standard but, if you think about it, woefully inadequate in terms of security. We are quite vulnerable if we tend to use the same email and, despite knowing better, the same or similar passwords for everything we log into (how else are we expected to remember?).

Well, enter “2 factor authentication” to solve all. We have been working hard to get ahead of the game in terms of security – on every level. So, for access to docSAFE, our professional client portal, you log in using your email address BUT then, a unique PIN is sent to your mobile phone. No need for passwords and highly unlikely that a hacker would have your mobile phone.

2 factor authentication – a complicated name for a simple, beautiful thing.

In a nutshell, exactly the way they were about to change pre-Brexit.

The big news is that the way you manage your data and its security is set to undergo a huge change, just as was planned before the big Brexit hoo-ha.

Coming into force in May 2018 we will still officially be part of the EU and therefore subject to its plans for GDPR. It is expected that, once the UK has adhered to the fairly stringent EU rules over data protection, it will continue to uphold them afterwards.

Whilst you may not have GDPR at the top of your boardroom agenda, it is likely you will have to consider it very soon. Tesco Bank recently had to pay out £2.5 million to its customers after a security attack. Had this happened under the new rules, the fine would have been closer to £2 billion. Well worth discussing ahead of time we think.

We work very hard to ensure your data meets all statutory requirements – and more. We can advise and help your organisation move towards complete compliance before the deadline. It’s what we do all day every day. Talk to us and we can help steer you in the right direction.

It’s important that any business holding information on clients is watertight – not just for regulatory reasons but also to protect your clients’ security as well as your own.