The General Data Protection Regulation
By William Marshall
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European Union’s new data protection law. It was passed in the spring of 2016 and following a two year grace period, and enforced on May 25, 2018, replacing the current Data Protection Directive in effect since 1995. The purpose of the GDPR is to provide a single uniform law governing the protection of personal data across the European Economic Area (the EU plus three other European countries) replacing the individual national laws passed under the 1995 Directive. The GDPR was also intended to clarify, strengthen, and modernize data protection, particularly given the profound changes since 1995 in how personal information is collected and processed on the Internet and otherwise.
