As the deadline approaches and passes, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have far-reaching consequences, certainly in Europe and possibly the US. But does it matter to Asia and how Asian enterprises do business in the next five years at least?
We need only to look at other compliance programmes, regulations, and guidelines led and implemented by either the European Commission or the US Federal government to realise that such regulatory statutes are no longer parochial provincial or regional. They inevitably become global. As global commerce and cooperation become more pervasive and the norm in an increasingly connected world, a regulation that ensures enterprise disclosure discipline, and accountability will become the gold standard for developing economies, environments, and sectors.
We live in a world of change – change the likes of which, we haven’t seen for a while. Not since the end of the world wars has there been such renewed almost frenzied focus thought, development and investment in democratizing data, enabling control, new working systems, lifestyle, and generally re-defining how we live in harmony with machines. The democratization of data – the ubiquitous offering of internet services and commerce, is redefining how we live, play and work.
With that comes responsibility. Responsibility for data – data that deals with personal information – everything from likes, preferences, demography, buying patterns, social connections, financial and permission data. In this digital world, data has become the new gold mine.
So who really owns the data that customers share with organisations? Is it the enterprise, the financial institutions, or the government (enforcement agencies)?
Ultimately we need as consumers of data and transacting individuals in the great big world wide web need to understand fundamentally, intimately, our very own inalienable right to privacy, freedom of movement, thought and action – AND with that the respect that MUST afford to our fellow human beings the same rights to privacy, freedom and free thought. I predict data protection, anonymization of data and the ethical use of personal information will be become a very basic human right very much like the right to consumable water, food, the Internet and freedom.
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