Jersey’s first CDO to host discussion on new regulatory landscape data

Thursday 10 November 2016

Phil Ruelle, Chief Digital Officer of the BDO Group, is to chair the TechFair debate on new European data protection legislation, looking at the way it may effect Jersey.

The European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to strengthen data protection for citizens of the European Union. It is due to come into force in May 2018.

A recent survey by Greenlight found 45% of island businesses are aware of GDPR and believe they are already compliant.  The survey, which asked businesses in Jersey ‘How aware are you of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)?’ also found 21% of businesses are aware of what they need to do to become compliant, while another 10% are aware of GDPR but don’t know what they need to do. Just 18% of those surveyed said they were not aware of GDPR, while 6% claimed they would not be affected by it.

Mr Ruelle said: “Given Jersey’s close relationship with European businesses, GDPR will have wide reaching consequences for almost all companies in Jersey. This event focuses on the technological challenges and opportunities that GDPR will bring, and is a great forum for anyone with questions about the impact of GDPR on their business to come along to and participate in a debate with some of the island’s technology and regulatory leaders.” 

He said: “While it’s reassuring that lots of businesses feel prepared for changes such as GDPR, there are still a lot of unknowns that companies will have to work through to become compliant. Because of GDPR’s focus on client data processing it is easy to see technology as both the root of the problem and the potential solution but GDPR is a business challenge not an IT one. Technology is core to achieving compliance but companies need to take a holistic look at the impact across their business, revising business models, re-engineering processes and integrating technology pushing this firmly into ‘digital’ territory.”