View from the FMO: Ensuring GDPR compliance

EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) made in 2016, must be implemented by May 25, 2018, and its impact on optical businesses has only just hit the industry.

At a round table discussion at our last general meeting the larger companies shared what they have done to ensure compliance, but there were still more questions than answers, and the discussion will continue at our next meeting. In the meantime the Optical Confederation is finalising GDPR guidance for the optical sector.

The current directive was issued by the EU in 1995, when the world was very different to the data-driven environment of today. While a directive can be implemented differently in each country, a regulation is uniform across the whole of the EU.