GDPR: DocsCorp survey finds financial penalties and changes to internal processes are the biggest concerns for European businesses

Legal IT Newswire: LONDON – November 14, 2017 – DocsCorp today released the results of its most recent survey: ‘The Current State of GDPR Readiness’. Respondents were asked a series of questions designed to qualify how prepared their organisations were for the upcoming changes to data handling under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into effect in May 2018. The results from the survey show that respondents are most concerned about the financial penalties associated with a failure to comply and changes to internal processes and structures.
Top concerns around GDPR for European businesses
When asked for their top concern around GDPR a significant 43% of respondents cited the financial penalties incurred when an organisation does not comply with the regulations. Under GDPR, fines can be as much as 4% of global revenue or 20 million Euros, whichever is larger.
Equally as concerning for respondents were changes to internal processes and structure they would need to make under GDPR, with 43% naming this their top concern. GDPR will likely cause major changes to internal procedures as regulations around data handling and storage become much tighter. For example, businesses will need to show how they obtained personal data and provide a business reason for holding it.
The remaining 14% of respondents said client or personal data leaks – which themselves carry a risk of fines or reputational damages – was their top concern, while zero respondents chose increased costs associated with data storage or responding to Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs).
For more information on GDPR and the relevant DocsCorp software solutions, visit docscorp.com/gdpr-solutions/. Download a report of the full survey findings here.