Nadine Dorries, a British MP, has made news over the past few weeks after admitting on Twitter that she shares the password to her work PC with other staff in her office and even “interns on exchange programs”. According to Dorries, the main reason for this is that her staff can access a shared mailbox on the PC and reply to constituents. More worrying still, in wake of the backlash directed at Dorries, other MPs have come forward and admitted to the practice, revealing a worrying trend. In a further statement that showed up Dorries’ lack of data protection savvy, she tweeted that since she was backbench MP without access to government documents, there was nothing sensitive to access. Dorries (and hopefully all other MPs sharing their passwords) are in for a rude awakening, however, as not only is sharing passwords against the rules of parliament in the UK, but even information as basic as an address book constitutes Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which is subject to strong protection under existing data protection laws – and will be protected even more fiercely under the upcoming GDPR, even in the UK.
EU Business Is Turning to Microsoft After They Offer Contractual Commitments to the GDPR
GDPR, the EU’s new set of data protection laws, is coming in May of 2018. It is a complete overhaul of how user data is processed by companies and will supersede Irish law, consolidating Europe’s various national laws into one comprehensive regulation. GDPR is all about accountability, and as such, places equal responsibility on both businesses who hold EU data and any third-party providers that may process/hold data on their behalf. In practical terms, that means that if you outsource any aspect of your business, such as payroll to an external HR company, then both parties must be GDPR-compliant, even if the out-sourced company is not based in or even near the EU. So what does this mean for companies who outsource data processing or host data in the cloud outside the EU? Well, it means Microsoft’s suite of cloud services such as Office 365, SharePoint and Azure are now looking a lot more appealing – as Microsoft are offering contractual commitments to their clients to comply with the GDPR in time for the May 2018 deadline.
Microsoft Cloud has promised to be GDPR-compliant as deadline looms
According to Rich Sauer, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, “Trust is central to Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. So that you can trust the Microsoft products and services you use, we take a principled approach with strong commitments to privacy, security, compliance and transparency.”