The British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) is advising all its members about the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which replaces the Data Protection Act (DPA) in May 2018.
The new act has much greater scope and much tougher punishments for both companies and individuals at those companies, should they fail to comply.
The new regulation stipulates that any data held by any organisation must be for a specific purpose and that confirmation of consent must be obtained from the data subject. This includes communication with customers, prospects, suppliers, staff, and service providers.
BHETA director Will Jones commented: “We are leading by example in terms of contacting our own membership, but given the potential penalties for non-compliance, it is vital that all companies understand the new legal framework. It is equally important that they take steps now to address the GDPR requirements, as doing so is not necessarily a quick process and in these challenging times, we must ensure that we are able to go about our normal business, confident that we comply with the law.”
