General Data Protection Regulation | GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation enacted by the European Union (EU) in 2018, aimed at standardizing and strengthening data protection for all individuals within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).

The primary objectives of the GDPR are to give control back to individuals over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international businesses by unifying data protection regulations within the EU. It applies to the processing of personal data, including health information, by an individual, a company, or an organization.

The GDPR sets out seven key principles for the processing of personal data, which include lawfulness, fairness and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality (security), and accountability.

Just like HIPAA, the GDPR mandates that all personal data must be kept secure, regardless of the format in which it is kept or transmitted. But GDPR goes further, granting individuals specific rights concerning their data, such as the right to access their data, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have their data erased in certain circumstances (the “right to be forgotten”), and to object to or restrict processing of their data.

The GDPR is applicable not only to organizations located within the EU but also to organizations outside the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, EU data subjects. It applies to all companies processing and holding the personal data of data subjects residing in the European Union, regardless of the company’s location.

The introduction of GDPR has had a significant impact on organizations worldwide, prompting them to closely review and, in many cases, revise their data handling procedures to ensure compliance, marking a significant shift in the global data protection landscape.