Five Years on from GDPR… The changing landscape of digital law in the UK

The EU General Data Protection Regulation came into force across Europe on the 25 May 2018. Five years on we have seen the importance of complying with the new law, with a few notable examples of fines across Europe, including British Airways, Facebook/Meta and Google.

The GDPR Enforcement Tracker, an online tool that tracks GDPR fines across Europe, shows that fines as of May 2023 sit at nearly 3 billion Euros across the Member States (including the UK), which includes the UK’s most recent fine on TikTok at £12,700,000 or 14,500,000 EUR. These fines really do show the cost of noncompliance with the regulations.

GDPR has been a catalyst for change in the way organisations design and implement their products and services. Now, with the further advancement of technologies like AI and robotics, the law is, once again, having to play catch up. However, GDPR is more relevant than ever as one of the foundations of digital regulation and, with compliance forming the basis of consumers’ trust as they do business online, in more ways than they ever have before.

Cybersecurity and data privacy was one of the prominent themes of our latest thought leadership paper on the Trust Economy, with tech leaders who contributed all in agreement that trust in an online world is complex and a new type of asset to be protected, and that legislation, compliance and innovation all have a part to play in this new currency.

The UK Government has made a commitment to be a ‘world-leading’ centre for innovation in technology supporting the creation of jobs, promoting productivity, and strengthening the economy. Given the radical pace of technology change globally, the UK has committed itself to promoting safe and sustainable use of technology with a raft of legislative changes in the pipeline. However, the UK is not alone – the EU has indicated radical legislative measures in the light of the evolving world of AI, and other countries are committing to similar measures. Only time will tell what these legislative measures will mean in practice, the likelihood being a greater dependence on managing compliance.

After hosting a stimulating and insightful Tech and IP Conference in Edinburgh this week around some of the themes relating to the Trust Economy and how organisations can make sure they are prepared to maximise the opportunities and minimise the challenges it brings, we are pleased to launch our UK Digital Legislation Tracker. This tool is designed to support you in understanding the changes that are coming and give you a high-level overview of the significance of each proposed legislative change.  Our skilled team of experts will be updating this from time-to-time to ensure you are kept up to date with what is going on, however if you want to learn more or wish to understand how this might affect your business then please do contract us.

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