When I dive too deeply in the world of laws, regulations, and acronyms, I lose all sense of bearing. It’s like floating alone in the void of outer space, with stars and black holes replaced by legal jargon. Now that I think about it, I’m probably more qualified to float around in an astronaut suit than I am to wade through all the rules and regulations required of business owners. So you can imagine my fear when I heard whispers of GDPR, a new privacy law requiring all sorts of things from companies and non-profits. After regaining my sense of bearing, I started to dive in on the facts:
- It stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a data privacy law passed by the European Union in 2016. The law goes into effect May 25, 2018.
- It’s a complex regulation that deals with how companies/non-profits handle personal information from people in Europe. This applies to any business that interacts with Europeans in any way, including internet companies.
- Compliance with the GDPR comes in the form of 20+ documents, something that is incredibly time-consuming (and costly) even for an attorney.
- Penalties for non-compliance are hefty: $24 million or 4% of revenue, whichever is higher. Not ideal.
Wow, you’re probably thinking, I only wish that a Utah-based law firm had enough foresight to build affordable software tools that can easily guide me through the GDPR process, much akin to TurboTax and taxes. That would surely make my life easier as a business owner, I could use the extra time to hang out at Swig and get weird on dirty sodas.
Well, you’re in luck. Parsons Behle Lab (a subsidiary of Parsons Behle & Latimer) has launched it’s first product and for those looking to comply with GDPR, it’s an absolute doozy. It’s called GDPR IQ and serves as an automated, cost-effective compliance solution for the impending regulation. According to PBL, it’s also the first tool that is able to take an organization’s GDPR needs and generate a complete set of required policies, procedures, and compliance docs.
Here’s what Kimball Parker, president of Parsons Behle Lab and an attorney at Parsons Behle & Latimer, has to say.
“Millions of businesses and nonprofits in the United States interface with Europe and will be required to comply with the GDPR by May 25. With the compliance deadline fast approaching, we recognized that small to midsized businesses, as well as nonprofits, need an affordable, timely way to generate the voluminous legal policies and documents necessary to comply. What would take an attorney months and potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars now takes minutes with GDPR IQ, for a fraction of the cost.”
To help educate the business world on both GDPR and GDPR IQ, Parsons Behle & Latimer is holding an event on April 17 at Silicon Slopes HQ in Lehi. Admission is free with RSVP, you can nab a seat here.
Parker and Tomu Johnson recently stopped by Silicon Slopes to record a podcast detailing GDPR, GDPR IQ, and more.
