Get your GDPR in order

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a crucial piece of privacy legislation that affects all companies that process personal data of European Union (EU) residents. For small businesses, it is especially important to understand and comply with the GDPR to avoid significant fines and maintain trust with customers. In this post, we will discuss 10 reasons why small firms should take the GDPR seriously despite some of the typical objections small companies may have towards GDPR compliance.

The Importance of GDPR for Small Firms:

  1. Legal Compliance: The GDPR compliance is mandatory by law and failure to comply can result in significant fines. Additionally the new EU Digital Services Act will force all platforms you sell through to insist that you can demonstrate your GDPR compliance.
  2. Reputation: By demonstrating a commitment to privacy and data protection, small firms can build trust with customers and partners, improving their reputation.
  3. Customer Protection: The GDPR requires companies to take appropriate measures to protect personal data, reducing the risk of data breaches and protecting customers’ sensitive information. The GDPR imposes additional obligations on companies that process sensitive personal data, such as health information, political opinions, and religious beliefs.
  4. Competitive Advantage: By showing that you take privacy seriously, your company can differentiate itself from competitors who may not be as vigilant.
  5. Improved Data Management practices: The process of complying with the GDPR can help a small firm to better understand and manage the personal data it holds, leading to improved data security, increased efficiency at a lower cost.
  6. Increased Employee Awareness: Compliance with the GDPR can help raise employee awareness of the importance of privacy and data protection, reducing the risk of human error.
  7. Enhanced Consumer Rights: The GDPR gives consumers more control over their personal data, including the right to access, correct, and delete it. By complying with the GDPR, a small firm can demonstrate its commitment to these rights.
  8. Third-Party Processing: The GDPR imposes obligations on companies that use third parties to process personal data on their behalf. Compliance here will inevitably result in more transparent and higher quality data processing.
  9. Data Breach Notification: The GDPR requires companies to report certain data breaches to the relevant authorities and affected individuals. In order to be compliant here companies will need to make sure they monitor their systems for breaches, which again provides improved transparency and control.
  10. Future-Proofing: By staying compliant, a small firm will have better oversight of its data management practices and as a result will be able to better respond to future changes and requirement, be those business driven or regulatory in nature.

We understand and sympathise with some of the typical objections small firms throw up when it comes to getting their GDPR in order, and that is exactly why we built our GDPRWise.eu software. We will make this as easy and efficient as possible and guide you every step of the way. Try GDPRWise for free here.