Category: CRM

I am sure some of you have seen my recent posts and made that conclusion that this is too much noise around the introduction of the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which replaces the current UK Data Protection Act on 25 May 2018.  Why is it creating such a stir and fuss?  How will organisations  be affected by it?  What will they need to do? Remember l am not a GDPR Solicitor or Lawyer but my reason in writing this post is to help you and your business better prepare for GDPR.

Penalties

One of the reasons GDPR has caught the attention of business owners is the potential for eye-wateringly large fines for non-compliance – up to €20m or 4% of global annual turnover. GDPR also makes it considerably easier for individuals to bring claims for ‘material and non-material damage’ – ie they will be able to claim for distress, hurt feelings, or reputational damage, even when they can’t prove financial loss.  That’s a sea change from the present law.

Data Protection Officers

Organisations with more than 250 employees, or which process data on a large scale must appoint a Data Protection Officer.  Others will need a DPO-equivalent to ensure GDPR compliance and to be the liaison for clients and others with privacy concerns.

Consent

Consent to hold and process personal data is the cornerstone of GDPR.  Data is defined as ‘any information … that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person’, eg electronic and paper records of names, email addresses, bank account details, photographs, medical records, IP addresses or social media posts.  You must request consent in clear, simple language, separately from other T&Cs, and be specific about how information will be used.  Data subjects (this includes clients and employees) must positively opt-in, with an easy way to withdraw consent at any time.  Using personal data for a different purpose needs a new consent.

Holding Data Lawfully

Organisations must document all the personal data they hold, its source, who can access it, where it’s held, and why it’s held.  Most law firms can call up their database and list their data by client.  But how many would be as confident about their paper records, including archives, and files inherited from other firms during mergers?  And what’s stored on individual desktops, laptops or in email records?

Communicating Privacy Information

Once you have a complete list of data, you need to document the lawful basis on which you’re holding it.  Refresh privacy notices, ensuring they are concise, clear and simple, stating how you intend to use the information and the lawful reason for processing it.  The privacy notice should also tell people of their right to complain to the ICO if they think there’s a problem with the way you are handling their data.

Accountability

Organisations must be able to prove compliance with the new legislation, and detail the steps taken.  Firms must have proper policies and audit trails documenting how processing decisions were made and how they achieve effective data protection.

New Rights

GDPR provides people with additional rights, notably:

The right to be forgotten – individuals will have the right to demand deletion of personal data where there’s no compelling reason for its continued processing. All Organisations/Businesses must have the processes and technology to be able to identify and delete data on request.  What do you hold and where?

Subject access requests – people can ask for all data held on them: organisations must provide this ‘without delay’, at the latest within one month, and without charge. Can you do this?

Privacy by Design

Under GDPR, privacy risks must be assessed at the start of any new project, and reassessed continuously.  You must carry out a privacy impact assessment whenever the risk of breach is high due to the nature or scope of the processing operation, e.g., where an organisation/business is planning to buy new software and data will be migrated, or in a merger where datasets will be combined.  It also applies to processing data concerning vulnerable subjects.  GDPR defines ‘vulnerable’ as where there is a power imbalance between the data controller and the data subject, and the individual may not be able to consent to or oppose the processing of their data.  This could apply to children and vulnerable adults, but also to HR activities.

Reporting Breaches

This doesn’t just mean the loss of data, but also destruction, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data. Currently, there is no obligation to report a breach, but GDPR requires the report of data breaches to the ICO within 72 hours.  There are potentially serious consequences of failing to do so – a fine of up to €20m or 2% of global turnover.  Practically, this means that everyone in a firm must be able to recognise a breach, with clear reporting lines to ensure a rapid response.

Experts and Outsourcing 

Some Business/Organisations commonly transfer personal data to other individuals and organisations, eg medical experts, or to outsourced providers, such as digital dictation or secure shredding companies.  Under GDPR the firm, as data controller, retains responsibility (and liability) for the proper and secure handling of their data by third parties and must only engage with those who can provide ‘sufficient guarantees’.  So, Organisations/Businesses must conduct thorough due diligence and review existing agreements to ensure that they are protected.

Conclusion

With the introduction of GDPR on 25 May 2018, privacy becomes central to everything you do, and firms should start preparing now. You should review all the data you hold and assess whether you have consent to process it. This is no mean feat and will require board/partner level commitment. Privacy just became real.

If you would like help in reviewing and revising your policies and procedures to achieve GDPR compliance, please contact TopOneCRM

Dynamics CRM system can be a vital tool to gaining and maintaining GDPR compliance.  Your policies will dictate what the systems need to do to support your compliance position. For example, simply having a CRM system that collects personal data doesn’t make it compliant. If your policies state that you only need name, address, email information, to carry out the required management/service to your customers, then Dynamics CRM needs to be configured such that this is all it is able to store.

Dynamics CRM should not allow users to enter personal details such age, marital status etc. beyond that, otherwise clearly your Dynamics CRM system is not compliant because it is not following policies which have been defined around the agreed business need.  There is then the associated data, such as emails, transactional history like Orders, Cases, enquiries etc. to consider.  All Users of the Dynamics CRM instance need to be informed and trained on the implications of GDPR and the use of the system. A Dynamics CRM system will hold records about individuals you sell to or do business.  It is important you can identify where, when and how the record got into your system.  Typically the ‘Source’ field of a Lead or Customer record is going to answer that question.

Marketing via Email.  If you use Dynamics CRM to market via Email then you need to implement a double Opt-In process for gaining permission to email to that individual and stating when you gain that email address for your list, what you intend to do with that address.  I.e. if you get the individuals details about Product A and then you start emailing them about Product B, this could be deemed as a breach of GDPR.  With double opt-in, not only has a user subscribed to a newsletter, mailing list or other email marketing messages by explicit request but he or she also confirmed the email address is their own in the process.

How long can Dynamics CRM hold a person’s data for? The GDPR legislation has rules around the polices which mean depending on your specific business needs, there may be limitations in terms of the extent of this data, the length of time it may be reasonable to hold this data etc.  The legislation indicates that say beyond a product warranty period, there would be no reasonable need for a company to retain that person’s data.  Your policy would need to state a case as to why a longer retention period is appropriate.  However, with just the subject area of emails, there is complexity.  Does this include all emails a person has simply been copied on?  If emails are stored in Dynamics CRM, then there is the double issue of managing this whole area in both your email service and Dynamics CRM.

But what do I do with the data in the backups?  There is also the consideration of backups and archiving, and this will apply to Dynamics CRM as much as any other application.  So, when for example you are using an online hosted instance of a Dynamics CRM, you need to understand what the archiving and backup processes of that online systems are such that if your policies state that you will delete any records of a certain nature that are greater than N years old, then that can be done and you know that that will be done through the backups and archiving taken place with your online instance.

The right to be forgotten.  Similarly, when it comes to an individual requesting an update of their information, a report of what information you hold on them, or an individual requests the right to be forgotten, then your policies need to define the requirements that your system needs to be able to support. Clearly good data quality, a subject very close to our hearts, is going to be an even greater requirement for GDPR than it has been to date to simply make Dynamics CRM work efficiently.  When such requests are made, high quality data will make it easier to ensure you identify the right person and that person only has one record in your system.  Therefore, any actions required can be carried out in confidence.  Knowing that if a person simply requests not to be contacted, i.e. unsubscribes, that as there is only one record, they will not receive further communications because they have a duplicate entry in Dynamics CRM that was missed.

Review your user’s access rights – look at all your users and what access rights they have to your Dynamics CRM instance.