ARTICLE · 24 AUGUST 2018

Should Canadians Worry About The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?

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With the recent personal data management scandals, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective as of May 25 of this year, is timely, at least for EU residents.

CanadaPrivacy

Pierre A. Vaillancourt

With the recent personal data management scandals, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective as of May 25 of this year, is timely, at least for EU residents. However, Canadian companies should take an interest in the GDPR since its scope will extend beyond the old continent.

1) What is the GDPR?

The GDPR, as its name suggests, "lays down rules relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and rules relating to the free movement of personal data¹." It imposes numerous obligations on companies (whether they act as the controller or the processors) in terms of personal data, which are more onerous than those currently in force.

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