Turnover of over 340,000 Romanian firms affected by new rules of personal data processing, study says

The turnovers of over 340,000 firms in Romania, representing the 40 percent of the overall firms, will be affected by the new European rules of personal data processing, according to a study.

The Perceptum research shows that the firms affected by these new regulations are especially multinationals, marketing and advertising agencies, firms of public surveys, banks and firms from IT&C.

According to the new rules ( EU 2016/67 regulation) applicable from May 25 2018, the companies have to offer more legal information about the manner in which they collect and keep the clients’ personal data, to offer them the rights to be deleted from the data bases and implement minors’ protections pecial rules. Also any data leak should be notified in at most 72 hours to the surveillance authority.

In this context, starting 2018, most of the companies will need to adjust their business models according to these restrictions.

„The implications of the new regulations don’t limit only to the firms from the above fields, but they will regard more or less all the business environment. For example, any firm that intends to acquire or rent a data base for email marketing campaigns risks more if it was obtained illegally. Most probably, there will be a period post-implementation, so that the organizations that don’t comply with the new regulations will be announced immediately,” says Raluca Ghilea, executive director of Perceptum, the agency of integrated services that developed the study.

The new regulation also restricts significantly the personal data processing if it has a significant impact on the individual, such as hiring or obtaining a loan. The fine for the ignorance of this regulation will be up to 4 percent of the company’s turnover of the previous fiscal year.