Companies made a last-minute rush Thursday to comply with new European Union data protection laws that Brussels says will protect consumers from being like "people naked in an aquarium". The EU's so-called General Data Protection Regulation takes effect on Friday and has been blamed for a flood of spam emails and messages as firms seek the explicit consent of users to contact them.
Britain's data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), said that its site had experienced "a few interruptions" as the deadline loomed, but said that "everything is working now" Brussels however insists that the laws will become a global benchmark for the protection of people's online information, particularly in the wake of the Facebook data harvesting scandal.
"The new rules will put the Europeans back in control of their data," said EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova - ironically echoing the slogan of "Take Back Control" that Britain's pro-Brexit supporters have used. "When it comes to personal data today, people are naked in an aquarium."
Companies can be fined up to 20 million euros ($24 million) or four percent of annual global turnover for breaching the strict new data rules for the EU, a market of 500 million people.
Comments
Comments are closed.