Where does the tech industry go after GDPR?

Now that GDPR is well and truly embedded in our hearts and minds…ok, not really, I know a lot of people hate it and a lot of companies are still struggling to come to terms with the best way to implement the far-reaching policy changes they need to make.

But now that the immediate panic about it is over and we’ve all settled into a low-level panic, I’ve been thinking more and more about what the post-GDPR world means for those of us in the tech industry.

We built our businesses on data

And now the way we all deal with that data has fundamentally changed. I’m not suggesting most people were using the personal data that they held inappropriately, I think most companies were using people’s information to conduct their business with them and then never thought about it again.

Which is where their tech providers came in. We thought about storing this personal data securely, while still giving our customers the ability to do what they needed to do.

With GDPR, there are a whole load of other things businesses need to be able to do around that data. For which we’ve developed new tools and functionality. Just as we always have.

But now, if something goes wrong due to malicious action or inaction, or because of a technical glitch…well, the stakes are that much higher, aren’t they?

Was GDPR a good idea?

I think we certainly needed reform on the way people’s data was being managed. Too much information was being bought and sold and misused.

But most companies, especially SMEs, struggled (and continue to struggle) to implement the necessary changes to be fully compliant.

I don’t want to second guess the regulations, nor would I dream of ignoring any part of them, but the scope of the changes and the lack of guidance in the early stages meant that people panicked. And were preyed upon by scammers promising an easy route to compliance.

GDPR, I think, will show its worth as the years go on. But it will take time to shake the unwieldy parts of the regulation out from the useful bits.

Until then, we’ve all just got to muddle through.

Oh and watch this space, over the next 12 months I predict that we are going to see some tightening of the rules which will lead to some clarity on those ambiguous areas and of course look out for those ePrivacy changes later this year. In other words its not over yet by a long shot!