The Government plans to replace General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with a new British
data protection system, the culture secretary has announced.
The European Union introduced the stringent GDPR law in 2018, changing
the way companies collect, process and protect the personal information of EU
citizens. Breaches of GDPR law have resulted in heavy fines.
Now the Government plans to introduce a ‘simpler’ and ‘clearer’ system
to replace it, according to culture secretary Michele Donelan.
"We will be replacing GDPR with our own business- and
consumer-friendly British data protection system," said Donelan, speaking
at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.
"Our plan will protect consumer privacy and keep their data safe while retaining our data adequacy so that businesses can of course trade freely. I can promise that it will be simpler, it will be clearer, for
businesses to navigate. No longer will our businesses be shackled by lots of
unnecessary red tape.
"It is time we seize this post-Brexit
opportunity fully and unleash the full growth potential of British business."
Currently, if a
company is found in breach of GDPR law, it can result in considerable financial
consequences.
Marriott's Starwood
division was fined £18.4m in 2020 when it was discovered hackers had
stolen the records of 339 million guests.
British Airways was fined £20m
in 2020 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
for a 2018 data breach that affected more than 400,000 customers.
The two tiers of
fines, €10 million or 2 per cent of the annual global turnover of the
previous year or €20 million or 4 per cent of the annual turnover of the
previous year, would be enough to put many SMEs out of business, making
GDPR compliance a real issue for many event professionals.
