After years of deliberation, the GDPR is now a reality to businesses around the globe. Rather than simply seeing it as a necessary evil, we should remain mindful of the value to be gained from the regulation. GDPR has given businesses the opportunity not only to enhance data protection, but also further implement a more ethical approach to data handling. This is a win for everyone involved.
The main goal of the GDPR is to protect personal data, to increase responsibility and accountability of organizations processing personal data, and to simplify the regulatory environment for businesses. GDPR ensures full harmonization of data protection law across the European member states; under the law, all national data protection laws are preempted by the regulation. Furthermore, member states must bring all sectoral laws that contain data protection provisions into conformity with the regulation.
If that sounds complex, it’s because it is. That is why I am very excited to share that Netskope is a founding member of the new Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) GDPR Center of Excellence, located at the CSA EMEA headquarters in Berlin. The Center of Excellence will serve as the center from which CSA will coordinate its GDPR activities globally, focusing initially on addressing compliance among the European member states and adapting the certification framework to their needs.
As a founding member, Netskope will work closely with the CSA to help organizations demonstrate compliance through the CSA STAR program and the CSA Code of Conduct, educate the community via the CSA’s online GDPR resource center, contribute to the CSA’s GDPR training and education programs and contribute to the CSA’s GDPR research roadmap.
GDPR may have changed the data protection landscape across Europe and the world, but institutions like the new GDPR CoE are critical to fostering a productive post-GDPR environment. The work that the new GDPR CoE will do will help organizations effectively reaffirm their commitment to GDPR-based data protection and privacy, which ultimately leads to greater levels of trust between vendors and their customers.
