Retailers risk GDPR wrath with old equipment
By Retail Technology | Friday October 19 2018
The retail industry features high on a list of sectors that are risking GDPR penalties by failing to wipe the memory of old IT equipment
In the two months following GDPR, 68% of businesses have failed to wipe the memories of IT equipment before disposal
Despite GDPR legislation having come into effect over four months ago, the majority of UK businesses are now risking penalties by failing to adhere to some of the rules.
According to a survey of 1,002 UK workers in full or part-time employment, carried out by Probrand, the majority (68%) of businesses have failed to wipe the data from IT equipment they have disposed of in the two months following GDPR.
Official protocol
The retail industry was the fifth biggest offender for this with 57% of businesses failing to clear the memory of IT equipment before disposing of it.
This news is perhaps less surprising given the research also found that 70% of all businesses do not have an official process or protocol for disposing of obsolete IT equipment.
What’s more, 66% of workers admit they wouldn’t even know who to approach in their company in order to correctly dispose of old or unusable equipment.
Matt Royle, marketing director at Probrand said: “The fines involved in a GDPR breach can potentially run into the millions – and what appear to be less tangible impactors, like reputational damage, customer trust and loyalty, will ultimately become financially
significant.
“Given these findings, it is clear that more needs to be done to ensure that all businesses have a disposal procedure in place to avoid inadvertently leaking sensitive data.”
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