Twitter takes aim as GDPR comes closer
People across Europe have been reacting with annoyance and amusement at a sudden upsurge in emails from companies and organizations holding their information ahead of new European data protection laws coming into force.
From Friday, General Data Protection Regulation, also known as GDPR, will be enforced, updating previous regulations enacted in 1995, before the era of widespread internet use. They affect any organization, wherever it is based geographically, that does business with European Union residents.
The new rules override and tighten up the older ones. The previous legislation was only a directive, allowing EU member states the flexibility to enforce it as they thought appropriate. The new regulations must be followed more rigidly, introducing a uniform approach across the EU and relating to anyone within it.
To hold and use such information, organizations must now be given explicit consent from the individuals in question. Companies will no longer be able to hide behind complex terms and conditions, and individuals will have increased rights over the use and storage of their data, including erasure, also known as the “right to be forgotten”, with significantly increased punishments for anyone breaking the rules.
As a result, data holders have been contacting people whose information they have stored to seek their permission to retain it before the new laws come in, leading to a flurry of emails to people on their mailing and contact lists, asking to retain them with titles such as “Is this goodbye?” and “We don’t want to lose you”, and competitions and incentives to stay signed up.
In the light of recent scandals over data harvesting and the way information has been sold and used, some Twitter users have expressed shock at some of the emails they have received.
“All of these GDPR notices from sites you haven’t visited in years should tell you one thing. No one deletes the data once they get the data,” said one user, Chet Faliszek.
Another, Jason Karaian, noted that Google searches on the term GDPR had surpassed those for US singer Beyonce.
The laws have also inspired a string of internet memes on the topic, as well as sarcastic references.
One of the emails that has drawn most comment has been from the Britain’s opposition Labour Party, mentioning how this weekend is the birthday of party leader Jeremy Corbyn, “and the last thing he wants as a gift is to see our movement lose strength”, before urging recipients to give their consent to receive more mailings. Political opponents have mocked its message.