By now you have probably learned that the processing of personal data does not always require an act of consent. Whilst much of the internet is obsessing over consent, re-consent and double opt-in consent, you have correctly discovered that it is not the only way to legally process personal data.

Marketing automation solutions have come along way in the past five years. Once used for mass emailing, now expanded to include an array of interactivity features such as blogs, landing pages and pop-ups, all to enrich the process of inbound marketing. But as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) enforcement data looms nigh, how ready are the likes of MailChimp? and what do you need to know as their data controller?

Like many an industry trend before, MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider) appears to be trending among IT teams and security practitioners alike; embracing the cloud and hosting technologies to relieve the burden of ownership and maintenance, retain security practices and benefit from subscription models of service.

With less than 100 days to go until the enforcement of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the relevance of this blog post on a short time span, a certain level of panic may begin to consume those who have only just started to take this subject seriously.

With May 2018 within touching distance, you may think it will soon be all over. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is taking its toll and fatigue around the topic has undoubtedly begun to set in. Yet, it is only just the beginning, as one door closes another door opens, to make way for the European Union’s ePrivacy regulation.

In the pursuit of writing about the practical application of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rather than reciting the contents of the freely available regulation document, I am writing this blog to answer a commonly asked question regarding the purchasing of marketing contact lists post May 2018.

If you haven’t heard of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), quite frankly I am in envy of you. Never has there been an IT security topic so heavily covered by those who wish to show they are literate and can re-write what they have read. Astronomical fines, forbidden non-consensual communication and mighty data subjects wielding new found rights have all been covered repeatedly and tirelessly.

As far as titles go, this one will likely prove divisive. On one hand, there are a plethora of IT security solution and service providers who are keen and hungry for the opportunity to work with customers on their preparations for the GDPR. On the other, doubt is sowed by those who question the ability of anyone who claims to know anything about the GDPR, simply because there is nobody with experience in application of a regulation which yet to come into force.

Otherwise known as the measuring stick by which your some of your GDPR compliance will be assessed, the six core principles of the GDPR are the basic foundations upon which the regulation was constructed. Unquestionable and pure in nature, they are somewhat rarely acknowledged for one simple reason; five of the six have no real application in helping to peddling products and solutions.

It's almost six months until the implementation date of the European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the UK begins its journey toward the club's exit door. The release of the DPB (Data Protection Bill 2017) has confirmed the UK's position on how it plans to remain tied, yet distinct from its European neighbours.

If the GDPR were a sea, it would be vast, confusing and in some places its shallow rocky geography would threaten metaphorical ships with disaster. Guidance for any would-be captain is plentiful; just searching for the term ‘GDPR’ in Google yields hundreds of thousands of results. From the basics of learning your portside and starboard to the more practical of how to protect your vessel from the supervisory authority’s arsenal, much is covered. That is with the exception of working with third-parties and most importantly, cross-border processing, something which is a normal aspect of business today, irrespective of size. This darker corner of the regulatory map is less often explored and must begin with identifying who is wearing the hat of the data controller and the data processor.

There is not much which sits higher in the priority list of information security professionals today than the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Record high penalties versus sweeping changes in the practice of collecting and processing personal data have led some information security teams to focus on nothing else in the coming 12 months.

Everybody has heard of fake news. Any politician worthy of their claim to modernity has dispensed the term as a battle cry against challenging forces. Bias, misunderstanding, spin, bending the truth are just some of the linguistic aliases which sit on a sliding scale of innocent mistake to concocted falseness.

After months of public debating, the binary answer to what is likely to be the most momentous decision the UK will make in my lifetime was finally within reach. The ultimate question was answered: the UK was to leave the EU, but what is left in its place?