Week #18 – So, you’re the GDPR expert, right?
Week #18 of your preparations for the GDPR (or the planned Data Protection Act 2018 in the UK) and its impact on your organisation’s customer experience. So, how’s it going?
My guess is that – unless your organisation has a strong Compliance function, which had already done plenty of planning for the GDPR before you got involved (some of which you may well have since disagreed with!) – you are now being treated as the company expert and ‘go-to’ person for all things data protection. As I assume you have plenty else to be getting on with in your own world of the Customer, then you probably don’t want to become the GDPR guide for everyone else.
If that’s the case then your colleagues who are responsible for other functions (Finance, HR, etc) may benefit from the some high-level guidance. Why not try sharing these 4 pointers for starters:
- If your colleagues are concerned about GDPR and a new Data Protection Act then for most organisations the biggest commercial and regulatory risk is that of a data breach. If they have concerns about the technical and ‘social’ security of personal data they should address those first
- Not all data your colleagues hold and process is personal data. Your fulfilment house’s good inwards address isn’t personal data. Anonymised purchase data isn’t personal data.
- They should think about the new and enhanced rights of individuals – be they employees, clients, suppliers, clients’ customers, or whatever – that the GDPR brings (www.ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/ ) and how they might impact on their function in the organisation
- Help is out there! Nearly every trade body and professional membership organisation has developed GDPR guidance tailored to its specific audience. This is often only available to members of those bodies and – just like in the world of customer experience – not all the advice will be absolute and incontrovertible, but your colleagues gaining an understanding some of the issues and approaches adopted by their peers is a useful start to the process
