Data Protection laws apply to all types of businesses, and compliance at all times is essential.
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You always need to abide by these rules of governance and understand what happens if you breach the data protection act.
GDPR: why does it matter?
First, you might wonder what data protection laws have to do with website design and content, but the short answer is quite a lot.
The introduction of EU regulations in the form of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set a new benchmark in handling personal data and the implications for companies that act in a way that breaches the rules.
Although the UK is no longer officially part of the EU’s GDPR remit due to Brexit taking effect from the 1st January 2021, the UK now has its own version in the form of the UK-GDPR Act.
This is primarily tailored by the Data Protection Act 2018.
The main point to remember about these changes is that the principles remain the same, and data protection rules apply to any UK business.
Here is a look at what you should know and why it is relevant to your business.
Why data protection matters for your business
As a company offering website development and design services in the Shropshire and West Midlands area and throughout the UK, one of our guiding principles is to take the utmost care with customer data in the age of GDPR. It is one of the reason we have opted to become accredited via ISO27001.
The ultimate aim is to deliver a website that is safe and secure. It also needs to be fully compliant with data protection regulations as well.
The main point to keep in mind about data protection regulations is that they are there to provide a degree of trust that you will use any data that you collect fairly and responsibly.
If you collect any sort of information about an individual for business reasons, you need to comply with the rules on how you handle and store that data.
The general remit of the UK data protection act is that it is designed to use a risk-based approach to data collection with a degree of flexibility. The bottom line is that the act very much puts the responsibility on you and your business to take steps to look after this personal data and justify why you need it.
The data protection act is all about providing a framework that requires you to comply with the general requirement to collect the information fairly and properly.
Although it is a legal requirement to comply with data protection rules and principles, it also makes sense to be very proactive and thorough with your data collection methods, as this helps build trust in your business.
It is also vital to maintain compliance with data protection legislation as the consequences of breaching the law could be quite severe.