1. Why GDPR?
Hello everyone, and welcome to this course on Understanding GDPR! My name is Shalini Kurapati; I'm very excited to introduce you to GDPR principles and concepts and hopefully make you appreciate them without all the mystery and complex jargon often associated with GDPR.
2. Course overview
In this course, we'll learn about the context of GDPR and why we need it. The main principles of GDPR and the various roles, responsibilities, and data subject rights mandated by it.
You will also learn about the legal grounds required to process personal data and the conditions for safe storage and transfers outside the European Union. Then the various security measures for data processing, including the concept of privacy by design.
We'll conclude the course with the relationship of GDPR with evolving technologies like Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. And not to worry, we'll use plenty of use cases and practical examples so you can apply all your learnings in your everyday life. Now, let's start with the why!
3. Why do we need laws like GDPR?
GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union, came into force on 25 May 2018.
The main objective of data protection laws like GDPR is to strike a balance between the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression. This principle is also known as proportionality. We will be citing proportionality throughout the course.
Privacy is a fundamental human right of an individual to be left alone and free of intrusion and to have some control over their information. Since the 1960s, the rapid growth of international trade meant the increased movement of goods and data across borders.
Laws like GDPR enable such data transfers while safeguarding human rights.
4. Privacy in the digital age
GDPR is even more critical in today's digital age. We share large amounts of our personal data over the internet, whether for online shopping, engaging with social media posts, and many other activities.
As an individual, it's hard to understand or have control over what happens, who has access to our data, and whether it is secure. As a business, you might want to know how to utilize your client data to improve your services while protecting their rights. GDPR provides answers for these scenarios.
5. Why is it special?
GDPR is not the first or the only data protection law in Europe or the world. You may wonder why it carries so much weight. What's impressive about GDPR is that it replaces and unifies the different national laws of the 27 countries of the European Union. Three additional countries, not in the EU but in the European Economic Area: Iceland Norway, and Liechtenstein have fully adopted GDPR.
Individuals and businesses (regardless of their size) can follow one harmonized set of rules on data protection. To truly appreciate its magnitude, you can compare it with the United States, which is one country that has more than 51 similar laws fragmented across states and federal bodies.
6. GDPR: The key features
While GDPR was primarily created to ensure human rights in the digital age, it vastly simplifies data protection rules for businesses since they only need to consider one unified monitoring framework.
Its impact is global. Wherever you are in the world, if you or your company need to process data from EU citizens, you must comply with GDPR. Many countries are following its example.
For those who haven't set up good data handling practices already, GDPR may appear daunting and cumbersome. But remember you need GDPR compliance to do business with the massive European Economic Area market. It also increases client trust, and bolsters your company's reputation.
Now that you learned about the why, we'll continue with the core concepts of GDPR in the next video!
7. Let's practice!
Before you go, let's test your knowledge on why we need GDPR.