The DMA survey into the evolution of attitudes towards the GDPR revealed that individual awareness and preparedness has risen, with 77% of respondents reporting good level of awareness and a further 74% felt prepared.
The results also showed people are becoming more aware of the potential impacts of GDPR on their firms: 64% felt that their organisation will be “very” or ”extremely” affected by the legislation.
However, despite GDPR business relevance, 30% of those surveyed think their organisations are unprepared.
On the consumer side, 39% of respondents thought that the GDPR will improve their ability to meet customers’ demands, and 34% thought the benefits would outweigh the cost.
The DMA also asked about the upcoming ePrivacy Regulation reforms, arriving in May 2018 and found that 28% of firms had no awareness of the legislation at all.
Chief executive officer of the DMA Group Chris Combemale believes GDPR is a watershed moment for organisations to put the customer at the heart of their business: “We should use the new laws as a catalyst to transform the way we speak to customers, making every engagement human-centric. This will enable organisations to build trusted, authentic and transparent relationships with their customers.”
In October, Mortgage Solutions reported that around 15% (or 1 in 7) UK businesses still had no plan in place to become GDPR compliant, the research – also from the DMA – also showed how 17% of businesses were behind on their compliance plans, while 60% were on track to meeting the new rules.
Intended as a replacement for the data protection directive of 1995, the GDPR is a piece of directly binding EU regulation aiming to strengthen and extend the scope of data protection for EU citizens – both within the European Union itself and the exporting of personal data beyond the EU — and will affect everyone involved in collecting processing information and data about individuals in the context of selling goods and services.
The GDPR will come into force in the UK from 25 May 2018, and the UK government has confirmed that the Brexit negotiations will not affect the commencement of the regulation in the country.
