GDPR

What is the GDPR?

The EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a pan-European data protection law, which superseded the EU's 1995 Data Protection Directive and all member state law based on it, including the UK's DPA 1998 (Data Protection Act 1998), on 25 May 2018.

The EU GDPR extends the data rights of individuals (data subjects) and places a range of new obligations on organisations that process EU residents' personal data.

The UK DPA (Data Protection Act) 2018 modifies the EU GDPR by filling in the sections of the Regulation that were left to individual member states to interpret and implement.

It also applies a “broadly equivalent regime” – known as “the applied GDPR” – to certain types of processing that are outside the EU GDPR's scope, including processing by public authorities, and sets out data processing regimes for law enforcement processing and intelligence processes.

The EU GDPR and DPA 2018 should therefore be read together. Find out more about the DPA 2018 >>

The GDPR will be enacted in UK law after Brexit under section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Who does the GDPR apply to?

• All EU organisations that collect, store or otherwise process the personal data of individuals residing in the EU, even if they're not EU citizens.
• Organisations based outside the EU that offer goods or services to EU residents, monitor their behaviour, or process their personal data.