Three years ago today the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted in the EU to protect you from morally questionable digital surveillance, and trust me, we’re all better off for it. Essentially the GDPR stops large companies from tracking you across the web and using that information to change your behaviour. When companies are collecting data they must disclose what they are collecting and why, plus they need to ensure that the data is well protected.
The immediate success of the GDPR led other jurisdictions to follow with similar policies to protect people, including in Japan, Chilie, Kenya, and more.
Over the BBC they cheekily posted a list of the biggest offenders of the GDPR (which shows why the legislation is needed).
4. H&M (35.3m euros)
H&M was fined by German regulators in 2020 after it was found to have been secretly monitoring hundreds of its employees.
If workers took holiday or sick leave, they were required to attend a meeting with senior staff at the retail giant on their return.
These meetings were recorded, and made accessible to H&M managers without the knowledge of staff.
The data collected from the interviews was used to make a “detailed profile” of workers, which then influenced decisions concerning their employment.