76 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017
IN-HOUSE ADVISOR
Europe's General Data Protection Regulation
will soon come into force, requiring major Canadian
companies to carry new costs associated
with a higher standard of data privacy
BY BRIAN BURTON ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERTO CIGNA
Erased
FROM POSTERITY
COMPANIES CEASELESSLY COLLECT customers' personal
data because they can — and because they know their competitors can.
ese companies know that whoever has the most data, and conducts the
best analysis, can make impressive gains in the competition for revenue,
profit and investment.
ey collect and use their customer's information to understand
changing trends and personal preferences, how to get the attention of
individual consumers, how to hold it, how much investment it takes to make
the first sale to a new customer and how much incremental investment it
takes to make the next sale, explains Timothy Banks, a privacy lawyer and
partner in the Toronto office of Dentons Canada LLP. e combinations
and permutations are endless.
"It's all about analytics and interest-based advertising," Banks says. "And
that's a point the privacy commissioners have not given enough attention.
Anything that interferes with analytics and interest-based advertising is go-
ing to be a concern for business."
e largest looming concern on the privacy front worldwide is the Gen-
eral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union. Passed
by the EU parliament in April 2016, it goes into effect on May 25, 2018,
with important implications for any company collecting, retaining or pro-
cessing personal data on EU citizens. At full stretch, that could include any
company, anywhere, selling anything online.
If it all sounds a trifle esoteric or just plain remote from daily business
concerns in Canada, the first thing Canadian companies need to know is
that fines for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation can reach
20 million euros ($30 million) or four per cent of "worldwide annual turn-
over" — whichever is more (article 83, section 4). For a company with $2
