The annual Fruitimprese Veneto assembly addressed how businesses are worried about the new privacy regulation. Entrepreneurs fear more complicated bureaucracy, higher costs and mistakes, especially as the sanctions are not clear.
"Data is a goldmine, the fuel of the new IT civilisation," explained solicitor Gualtiero Roveda.
Fruitimprese Veneto president Stefano Pezzo, standing. Gualtiero Roveda and Ilaria Del Giglio, seated at the speaker's table
The new European law entered into force on 25th May 2018. On the one hand, companies don't know how checks will be carried out and what will be the sanctions. On the other hand, they fear hackers, as the data has become very sought after by cyber criminals.
"For example, some hackers have stolen invoices and sent them to clients with their own bank details. In addition, we must pay attention to Criptolokers, i.e. viruses that block all data and cancel them if you don't pay a bitcoin ransom within a deadline."
A company wanting to work with retailers must comply with data safety regulations as well. "The question all entrepreneurs need to ask themselves is not 'who could be interested in my data?' but 'how much am I interested in my data?'. There is no way to be 100% safe, but it's important to be protected and have back-ups.
Sanctions can reach €20 million. There is no minimum, as it depends on the authority. But data protection must be a priority not so much to avoid sanctions, but because company data are sought after by criminals and big data managers.
