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You may have heard of the Data Protection Act 1998; a piece of legislation designed to protect the transfer of personal data. Well the data regulation landscape is all about to change – “why now”; you may ask. Well to put it simply, a lot has changed since 1998. Facebook was created in 2004 becoming a global phenomenon and dramatically changing the way we do business. Twitter followed shortly after in 2006 resulting in a stark change in how we promote our business online. Edward Snowden revealed the level of international spying on our personal information and Maximilian Schrems became forever remembered as the man who wanted to be forgotten.

As such, Europe has decided that we need to revisit our law and put more stringent measures in place to protect the data subject; stringent perhaps being an understatement of the law to come. These regulations are known as the General Data Protection Regulations. Whilst we have two years to get our act in gear, it’s worth taking a preliminary look at what is to come and see what measures can go in place now; so the change does not feel so dramatic!

Briffa, leading IP and IT specialists, will be presenting a legal update on data protection in 2016. Topics for discussion include:

• Facebook, Twitter and Snowden – some general context on the data protection landscape and how it’s all changed;
• Who is the law trying to protect – the data subject and consent (a more arduous task than it already was?);
• An elephant never forgets but now we have the right to be forgotten – Schrems takes on Facebook and wins. What this means in practice;
• A new role for a new regulation – mandatory appointment of a data protection officer;
• Processing data – a liability minefield – how the new regulations affect the everyday processor;
• Data breach? Time to tell everyone – new timeframes for telling data authorities if and when a data breach occurs;
• What impact does data processing have on us all – obligations to complete an impact assessment;
• What this all means in practice: from the one man band to the global conglomerate – taking steps to minimise risk.

This area of law is every changing (even since we first announced this event there have been changes with the US-EU Privacy Shield agreement); however Briffa will provide a short and snappy overview with time for a Q&A session afterwards. Comments or queries are welcome in advance.