Attorney Mona Ibrahim, who advised several clients about how to comply with GDPR on their websites, wrote in the article “Why you should be reading the privacy notices choking your inbox” on polygon.com that it is useful for people to pay attention to the emails and notices with the changes. Although the rights are mostly for residents of the EU, others will benefit because so much of what takes place online is global. She lists a number of rights granted by the GDPR, including access to your data, asking to have your data deleted, the ability to restrict certain third-party activities, and more.
It’s all about consent. Ibrahim notes: “Consent must be specific, concise, easy to understand, and freely given. Individuals in the EU must also have the ability to withdraw consent in a manner no less difficult than it is to give consent.” Consent is even required if you want to continue communicating with people already on a list you’ve created — whether by email or mail.
A lot of the changes haven’t come to full fruition, so it’s likely that there will be attention directed toward this issue for the next few months. According to Ibrahim, “companies have plenty of incentive to pay attention to you moving forward if providing end users data protection solutions makes a company more attractive to you.”
The GDPR also offers a number of tools for consumers, including a way to download all of your data. Check out Gizmodo for more information.
TechLinks: What you need to know about privacy issues and the GDPR
TechLinks: What you should know about the GDPR for your business
