A survey - conducted by ADP Research Institute - shows that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force a year ago, has had a positive impact on employee confidence around data security.
In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation was implemented to boost individual data protection and to guarantee the privacy of those living within the European Union and Economic Area.
The survey found that 53% of the respondents said that their confidence has risen in the way their employer stores and secures their personal and private data - an increase of 6% on results from 2018.
The ADP Workforce View in Europe 2019 surveyed over 10,000 workers in Europe - with countries including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK being researched. It reported that employees generally have been feeling more assured about their companies’ data protection efforts since the GDPR came into being.
However, 34% of employees in France still had some concerns about the safety of their personal data and over a quarter of the UK employee respondents are still worried about the security of their personal data - with the biggest worry for 11% of the employees being the lack of control that workers have over their data storage.
The next issue - reported by 9% of employees - is lack of confidence that the data is being held by systems in their organisations which are capable of withstanding cyber-attacks or data breaches. A further eight per cent stated that they are concerned that too much data is being held without proper consent.
Cécile Georges - ADP Chief Privacy Officer - stated:
“It’s highly encouraging to see that the implementation of GDPR has coincided with a significant rise in employee confidence, suggesting that employees feel more assured than they were prior to GDPR that companies will actually comply with Data Protection requirements that for the most part were already in force in the European Union.
It is crucial for both the organisations and their employees that the former are complying with GDPR and have a thorough understanding of the impact of wrongfully processing data on employees.
GDPR has already led to positive results but companies must continue to work to maintain data security and ensure their employees feel confident about the way their employers hold and process their personal data.”
