Data Protection Day Update: Prioritise Data Protection To Avoid Substantial Fines

Companies in Ireland will have to pay more attention to their data protection procedures in future as a new EU regulation to be formally approved by the EU in the coming weeks threatens companies with huge fines in the event of a data breach. This was the message at the annual Data Protection Day briefing hosted by Anne-Marie Bohan at Matheson's Dublin offices today, 28 January 2016.

The General Data Protection Regulation, aimed at developing a more coherent and uniform data protection regime across the EU Member States, will require companies to ensure privacy is in-built into systems and products, and to report privacy breaches to authorities, or face sanctions of as much as 4% of global revenues, which supporters believe will motivate organisations to reassess their data protection policies.