Here is the one reason why companies are getting data protection wrong

Today marks the 13th annual Data Protection Day, a day aimed at raising awareness and promoting good data privacy practices around the world. 

The past year saw vast changes impacting the UK’s data protection landscape, not the least of which is due to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) officially coming into play. The regulation means that regardless of the industry or location, any business that holds and processes personal data must prioritise data protection.

The fines associated with non-compliance are hefty, to say the least, and the potential damage to the brand’s reputation can be even costlier. Yet, we have seen big brands including the likes of Google tripping up on their data protection journey. Where are companies going wrong in getting data protection right?

Finding the data is not easy

Data protection is complex and involves multiple teams, technologies and systems to work together. One of the first hurdles IT teams face is in conducting a Data Assessment Report, which requires organisations to locate any personal data they are holding and document how the data is collected