No it is not a new disease although it sounds like it!  It stands for General Data Protection Regulations and comes into force from the EU tomorrow, May 25th.  Here in the UK we are being bombarded about privacy messages and a few friends in the USA have had them and are concerned about it.

The new regulations are coming into force to try to stop data breaches and people using data held by companies etc for other means.  Companies collect your data such as emails, addresses, telephone numbers, date of births etc when you buy something or enquire about something and then retain the data to be used again by them.  There was also a time when some companies would sell their email list to other companies and the new rules are stopping that.

If a company holds your data they will now have to encrypt it so that if there is a breach the data cannot me used.  If you do not want the company to retain your details then just opt out when they send you can email and they have to then remove it.

Through our business we are having to encrypt our data despite the fact that the data we hold is about our customers or prospective customers and they have given us their data but it is to stop any breaches.  The swimming club are of course have to do a lot to keep the data safe and encrypt that because of the information held about the swimmers and their parents.

A question was asked about Blogs and this falls under a different section of the regulations

Article 4(18) defines enterprise as ‘a natural or legal person engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form, including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity’

Most blogs have a follow button and that is then linked to an email address.  This is stored by the platform you are using ie not stored by yourself on your personal computer.  However if people are not happy about their email being stored by the software then they can un-follow the blog but that means they will not receive updates when the blogger adds a new post.

Therefore you have to take a view on how you are seen on the World Wide Web.  I will say that with all the social media platforms out there and the amount of data that people share on that, having your email address out there is probably quite a small thing, but that’s my view!

To my Followers if you do not wish to receive any further blog updates via email because of the new rules, then I completely understand if you wish to un-follow me, although I will be sorry to see you go.  However I will never use anyone’s email address for anything other my posts.

Hugs, Susie x

PS Sorry that was a boring post!  I will put something else better up later!!!!