General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR for short is currently on the government’s agenda with lots of air time and web space being devoted to it. No doubt, like me, you’ve already been receiving post asking you to “opt-in” to mailing lists (both electronic and traditional). Although the new regulation is from the European Parliament, it has been enacted into UK legislation and effects all organisations that have business in Europe. This includes charities and churches.
I wanted to write a short note to let you know what we’ve done, how we are currently tackling it and what we still have yet to do in order to become legally compliant with this new piece of legislation.
What we’ve done
One area of the legislation is the appointment of a Data Protection Officer. I’m pleased to announce that Joe Connelly will be acting as our Data Protection Officer.
We’ve also undertaken a complete data audit (which I think was nearly 50 pages in length!!). This has allowed us to take stock of where we are and address areas that need to be tightened up so that we become compliant with the new legislation.
What we are currently working on
We’re currently writing a Data Protection Policy and a Retention Policy. We are also building new systems for our data management which we will tell you about on 20 May.
What we still yet plan to do
We plan to give our ministry leaders some data protection training. This will take place on 13 May. Then, on the 20 May, we will meet as a church to discuss the changes that our audit and subsequent matters that have arisen from that have revealed. We will need to seek your consent to continue sending you information and we plan to get your consent on at the meeting on 20 May.
What you can do to help
Pray. This is a big undertaking and we not only want to get it right, we also want to do it well. Prayer is appreciated.
Admin assistance. We have need of editors and proofreaders – if you can make yourselves available over the next two weeks please let us know. We also are in need of any “critical friends” out there who may be going through data compliance in their business or industry. If you have any insight into data protection please do chat with Joe C.
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