The globe is becoming more linked by the day. Consumers purchase from companies halfway around the globe and sometimes have little knowledge of who they are working with and where. Trust is what counts to them, and how companies handle the data they acquire and hold determines a great deal about that.
Indeed, we frequently discuss the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union in terms of a top-down approach of defending the privacy and rights of EU individuals – and it is absolutely that. However, by following its criteria, companies expose a lot about their standards, policies, and principles. In part at least, following the GDPR is about fostering trust.
Article 27 of the GDPR mandates that companies non-established in the EU but process personal data of EU citizens name a European representative for GDPR (the EU GDPR rep). For EU supervisory authorities as well as people, this representative serves as their point of contact. Their main responsibilities are to guarantee, on behalf of the non-EU company, compliance with the EU GDPR rather than the UK version.
What does an EU GDPR representative do?
An EU official covering GDPR Article 27 has a broad and significant responsibility. When used fully, commerce with the EU may be a simpler, more seamless and far less tense experience.
- Acting as a mode of communication, the GDPR EU representative services link the UK company with EU supervisory authorities or persons. They provide a seamless information flow by handling questions, requests, and discussions about data protection issues.
That seamless flow is really significant. For most companies, awareness of data privacy issues usually does not form part of their expertise. Organizations without a healthy working relationship with their GDPR representative often either wait on a request coming in from consumers and data subjects or from authorities or worry about it. For compliance or the company, neither is good. Having a representative for all GDPR-related concerns on speed dial helps to ease the stress and enable smooth GDPR compliance in business as normal.
- EU GDPR officials are absolutely vital in helping data subjects to exercise their rights. Article 3 of GDPR confers upon a data subject many rights over the data you retain on them. These cover rights to correction, erasure, data portability, processing limitation, more. Along with translating any non-English inquiries, your EU GDPR representative will answer questions and manage requests and correspondence pertaining to data security issues.
- EU GDPR officials support efficient channels of contact with EU supervisory agencies. Most UK businesses will be quite pleased when an EU body wants to confirm that the data processing operations of your company comply with GDPR criteria. Your Article 27 representative will be contacted first.
- Documenting and complying with GDPR is not a “one hit and done” approach. The GDPR is going to change going forward. Therefore, the job of the EU GDPR representative is not just to investigate the way EU people’ data flows through your company and make sure your procedures satisfy current GDPR criteria. It also guarantees that your company remains compliant with evolving laws and that all required records exist to show regulatory compliance.
