Earlier this year, the UK government announced the Data Reform Bill, which aims to tackle the problems that businesses have with data protection law. However, when making changes to GDPR, the Government must bear in mind the following:
- The risk the UK might be seen to be non-equivalent to the EU’s GDPR needs to be avoided (and in turn avoid challenges to the international data flows between the EU and UK that would create more uncertainty for businesses).
- UK Tech businesses all need certainty for investment. The current lack of clarity on how GDPR applies is harmful and chills investment.
- Government can play a role in setting the rules and making them easy to understand: a certification system that allows business to know where it stands is, however, now critical.
Whether FinTech, MarTech or AdTech, UK Technology and creative businesses are at the forefront of the economy. The UK can build on its advantages and be a major place to do digital business globally, but this relies on achieving a degree of certainty for investment.