5 Reasons Why Every Business Should Have GDPR Representative Services
How businesses handle customer data are scrutinized within an inch of its life nowadays. Put a foot out of line when it comes to compliance and chances are, it will land you in some financially hot waters.
GDPR is a privacy law that applies to all businesses that operate within the EU and processes data on EU citizens. Chances are if you’re a global brand or have a partial consumer market anywhere in the UK, you’ll need to comply with these rules.
Not every business has the knowledge when it comes to privacy compliance, let alone an in-depth knowledge of GDPR as a privacy law.
According to Atlas VPN, GDPR fines hit a total of €97.29 million in the first half of 2022.
Despite businesses’ best efforts to comply, this total is an increase of 92% over the first half of the previous year, 2021.
Suffice it to say, it’s essential for businesses to take privacy laws seriously, especially when it comes to GDPR. In this guide, we’ll explore in more detail, what GDPR is and why it’s relevant to your business. You’ll learn all about GDPR representative services and why they’re beneficial to have.
What is GDPR?
For new businesses venturing into the unknown or those businesses acquiring their first EU customers, what is GDPR?
GDPR is short for The General Data Protection Regulation. This EU regulation came into action back in 2016 in order to help consumers protect their data and privacy from businesses that held their data.
For any businesses that process data on EU citizens, it’s a privacy act that needs to be abided by, regardless of where the business is located. As noted above, GDPR doesn’t mess about when it comes to fining companies that believe they’re above the law and can get away with poor data compliance.
Why is GDPR relevant for business?
Since GDPR has come into play, it’s changed a lot of the processes that a company has to do when it comes to data compliance. A few ways GDPR affects business operations include:
- How sales teams prospects leads
- The process of acquiring data from customers
- How marketing activities are managed
- Management of applications and general processes
For example, when it comes to a customer filling in a sign-up form, they’ll need to tick a box and then confirm it was them who did it by verifying it via email. It’s a longer-winded process that businesses didn’t need to do prior.
We can appreciate the efforts that many had to make in order to become compliant.
Unfortunately, not all businesses did, hence the eye-watering fines that have been dished out since its inception in 2016.
It’s not just the blatant disregard though for GDPR. Some businesses simply don’t understand what it is they need to be compliant and as a result, they’re fined despite their best efforts.
While companies will look at new ways to collect customer data, businesses still need to remain compliant with GDPR. The same goes for any other data privacy laws that come into play.
5 reasons why your company needs a GDPR representative
There are a number of reasons why it’s good to have a GDPR representative in place. This is particularly so for those businesses that have limited knowledge of GDPR or have only just seen a shift in customer geographics to EU terror tries.
For US businesses, nearly 8 out of 10 US companies took steps to comply with GDPR when it was first introduced. That means it’s important to follow suit as a business to avoid those nasty fines. What are the reasons for needing a GDPR representative or representative services in general?
Provides clarity on the subject of GDPR.
GDPR is a law that is still somewhat hard to understand and even those businesses within the EU, find it complicated.
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As a relatively new privacy law, it’s likely to still need the odd tweak and update to make more sense for businesses both old and new. As a business, for those that don’t quite understand how the process works, a GDPR representative can provide clarity.
Confusion has led to many businesses being slapped with a fine. It’s worth getting the expertise on board to help prevent that from happening to your business.
Qualified representatives assist in compliance.
The representative or representatives provided to help with GDPR can assist in transforming the business into a compliant one. Almost all departments might need adjusting when it comes to compliance. From ensuring the business adheres to compliance and providing training for staff, all of it can be covered with a qualified representative.
Where a business might be finding it challenging to understand where compliance is missing or where it needs to improve, expertise in this field can help.
Helps avoid hefty GDPR fines.
It’s very apparent that GDPR isn’t slowing down on penalizing those who don’t adhere to the compliance required with this data privacy law.
Having GDPR representative services to help assist in providing that compliance, can reduce the likelihood of being subjected to any fine.
As the business grows and the changes in data laws continue to evolve, having a representative to keep on top of it all, can mitigate the risks. After all, these fines are hefty and not all businesses can bounce back easily after taking a financial knock.
A tailored approach to the business needs.
Every business is different and the demands of one business might be different from the other. For example, your business may be relatively small to medium-sized. This means you only need one representative to assess and introduce new GDPR-friendly systems and processes.
For other businesses, it might be a different story. They could have a relatively compliant business in place and therefore the approach is less complex. When it comes to hiring a GDPR representative, the individual can provide a tailored experience and approach to your business.
Helps alleviate some of the workloads that come with it.
The workload involved with GDPR compliance is no easy feat. Therefore having someone to help with the potential workload required, can be useful. A big relief and a weight off the shoulders of those who’ve managed data compliance with GDPR prior.
As data security has become more important than ever for customers and influences their trust in a business. It’s good to have someone who knows what they’re doing.
How to appoint GDPR representative services
Now that you understand the benefits of a GDPR representative, how do you appoint them? For those that don’t have a base inside the EEA. It becomes required by GDPR to have a representative in the EEA.
- The representative must be authorized by the business in writing.
- The representative may be an individual, company, or organization established in the EEA.
- Give details of the representative to EEA-based individuals whose data you are processing.
For the appointment of the representative, it should be in writing as mentioned above. It should also outline the terms of your business relationship with them. While having a GDPR representative in place is helpful, it doesn’t remove your own responsibility or liability under the EU GDPR.
That means if the business still has compliance issues, the fines will still stand. With that being said, it’s important to get the right people or organization in place to help.
The potential fallout for lack of GDPR compliance
What happens if you choose to ignore GDPR? Well, the biggest damage that can be done is the financial impact, financial penalties are dished out to any and all businesses that refuse or make little effort to stay compliant.
The fine itself, in the most serious of cases, can be up to 17 million euros or 4% of the company’s annual turnover as stated by GDPR. It’s not just financial damage though that can become affected. Here are a few of the potential fallouts that can come with failure to be GDPR compliant.
Reputation damage
Reputational damage is something that can come as part of the failure to be compliant. Not being compliant can show your customers that you don’t much care about using their data properly. While that might not become the case. That’s the look that is presented when a business isn’t showing to be GDPR compliant.
Loss of trust in customers as a non-compliant business
A loss of trust can come from customers when the business isn’t compliant with GDPR law. That loss of trust leads to customers looking elsewhere for their business and that financial damage can be hard to come back from.
Risks of data compromise
Consumers expect companies to be doing everything they possibly can to mitigate risks when it comes to data security.
Without compliance with GDPR, it’s likely going to pose the question, what is the business doing to help protect data security? With a rise in cyber attacks and new threats emerging, not caring for consumer data is a bad move.
Invest in GDPR representative services for compliance
In order to help maintain and improve compliance with GDPR, get a GDPR representative or use the services of any organization that seems like a good match. Without a representative, you’re swimming in dangerous waters!
5 Reasons Why Every Business Should Have GDPR Representative Services
Author Bio: Natalie Redman (LinkedIn)
Freelance writer for many clients across multiple industries. Natalie has two years of copywriting experience. Natalie has a wide range of experience copywriting for web pages for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a Youtube content creator.
5 Reasons Why Every Business Should Have GDPR Representative Services
