October 20198 DATA PROTECTION TRENDS - GDPR AS A FORTHCOMING GLOBAL PRIVACY BENCHMARKJiri CernyBY JIRI CERNY, LEGAL & CORPORATE AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, MICROSOFTMany countries are currently reconsidering their approach to privacy. This is a trend that has emerged as a response to some recent personal data exploitations that citizens did not find acceptable and, which the current privacy laws were not able to tackle. Europe has come with their GDPR already in 2018 and it's currently being considered as the most comprehensive privacy law. Europe has a long tradition of privacy, which is considered as a fundamental legal right. As global focus on data protection law continues to increase, GDPR is becoming a global privacy benchmark and there are two main drivers behind this notion:1. With the increasing number of countries who revisit their privacy laws, GDPR serves as inspiration for emerging privacy laws across the globe. 2. GDPR applies to all companies that process personal data of EU citizens, irrespective of the location of the company in question. This means that any business, which is active in EU, needs to take GDPR into account. If there is a global company with operations in EU, it frequently adopts GDPR driven obligations globally, as unification of privacy approach simplifies their internal processes. One of the aspects that made GDPR such a well-known topic is the amount of fines that can be imposed. GDPR establishes different two thresholds for fines. The highest possible fine is either up to 20 million EURO, or up to 4% of the global annual turnover (whichever is higher). However, it's not only the possibility of fines that should be considered as a reason of compliance with privacy laws. Violation of privacy can seriously affect companies' reputation and most importantly trust of their customers, partners, and employees. Data Protection and Cyber SecurityThe second major policy trend affecting data protection is cybersecurity. Similarly to privacy, governments are becoming more concerned, if they are ready to tackle challenges brought by new dimension of cyber-attacks. Unlike with privacy laws, which are meant to protect individuals' rights, cybersecurity laws are primarily driven to protect states' security, and extend regulatory requirements beyond personal data.IN MY V EW
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