A strong Enterprise Architecture practice will help prepare organizations for GDPR

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Any private or public organization anywhere in the world could be caught by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, EU Regulation 2016/679) if it processes personal data relating to EU citizens, has a European presence, or has a website offering goods or services to EU citizens. And it critically affects all personal data, changing the way that entire organizations interact with personally identifiable information. It requires changes in both security and processing as well as in the comprehensive documentation they must maintain. It came into force on May 25, 2016 with a moratorium of two years, so they must be ready by May 25, 2018. Penalties for not complying with the legislation are potentially eye-watering, including fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual global revenue.

The problem lies in how to adapt to regulations (with more than 99 different rules and stipulations around data), which is not obvious and as usual depends on interpretation. According to analyst IDC, 78% of European companies' technology managers still do not know what impact it will have on their business, and the rest only confirm that they already comply with 20%, making it an urgent task for most of European companies. It is estimated that more than 50% of organizations that have to comply with GDPR regulations will not be fully prepared by the end of 2018.

The Regulation is the most significant change in the fundamental rights of data privacy in 20 years, ensuring that personal data are protected regardless of where they are sent, processed or stored. It includes 8 fundamental rights: right to be informed, right to access, right to rectification, right to forget (to erase data when they are not necessary for the purpose with which they were collected), right to restrict processing, right to data portability, the right to object, and the right to make decisions and create automatic profiles.

Companies must take action to have Active Responsibility for these rights. It is not enough to act against an infraction. It must be proactive and be able to demonstrate compliance with the rules and it is a process of continuous compliance that forces to think and work constantly within the legal framework of regulation. They will have to protect data from design and default, implement security measures, maintain a record of treatments, know the flow of data, manage data as they change over time, conduct impact assessments on data protection, appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) with legal competence and technological security infrastructure (it is estimated that 28,000 DPOs will be required in Europe), notify any security breach within 72 hours to the Spanish Data Protection Agency, and promote codes of conduct and certification schemes.

Companies will have to establish barriers in their processes, so that the sensitive information is treated according to the purpose of its use, with confidentiality and integrity. Technology plays a key role in ensuring legal compliance, and must meet privacy requirements (from collection, treatment ... to destruction) and not just security requirements.

Data has become a competitive asset. Companies are collecting as much data as possible on consumers, sometimes before knowing exactly what, how or when that data will be used, causing imbalances between what we know and what they know about us. This practice of data maximization changes with the GDPR towards the principle of data minimization, forcing companies to capture only the least amount of personal data for the shortest time possible and to eliminate it as quickly as possible after have completed their specific purpose.

Although the DPO is primarily responsible for compliance with and implementation of the GDPR, this individual will need a team of specialists to be successful. The Enterprise Architect plays a critical role on this GDPR compliance team. Enterprise architects are uniquely positioned to help their organization to demonstrate that they comply. Leveraging their architecture models for security and privacy analyses, architects can provide cross-cutting analyses on the use and protection of data across the enterprise, its processes, people and IT systems.

Gartner proposes to focus on five high priority changes to cope quickly with EU GDPR:

1. Determine your role under the GDPR.
2. Appoint your data protection officer.
3. Demonstrate accountability in all processing activities.
4. Check your cross-border data flows.
5. Prepare for data subjects exercising their rights.

As Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a key for GDPR compliance, most EA solution vendors are providing extensions to their products and specific information that helps compliance.

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