GDPR/Meeting Notes 2019-01-14

GDPR

Date

Monday, 14 January 2019 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm iCal

Meetup Event

https://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/255516932/

Location

*** Room 1300 *** -- Conrad Grebel University College, 140 Westmount Rd. N., Waterloo, Ontario Map

Event Announcement

GDPR/Announcement 2019-01-14

Does your Non-Profit organization collect personal data on people? People in Europe? And what is Personal Data anyway? Does your organization have an office in Europe? Store data in Europe? Process data in Europe? What is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? Does it apply to your organization? What policies does your organization need to have? What technical measures need to be in place? What's the SysAdmin's role in all this? Could a SysAdmin be liable?

Marc Paré will provide us with an overview of the GDPR, and outline some of the concerns for Non-Profit SysAdmins.

--Marc Paré & Bob Jonkman

• GDPR/Meeting Notes 2019-01-14

Resources

• TechSoup Canada Catalogue
• Wikipedia: General Data Protection Regulation

Meeting Notes

• Don't take our words as legal advice!

• Some websites closed down rather than violate GDPR
• Each country in EU needs to appoint its own GDPR Commissioner
• Started last year (25 May 2018)
  • People had several years to comply before 2018
  • But European commission is not yet up-to-speed on everything, still working on enforcement and compliance

• Personal websites don't fall under GDPR
  • Unless you're selling goods or services to European markets
  • If you don't expect visitors from Europe you should be OK
  • But GDPR exceeds boundaries, even non-European sites need to follow that law

• Controllers: Collect the data, set standards to determine what data to collect (eg. Google)
• Processors: Websites that don't necessarily use the data, but collects data from other sites (eg. banner ads)

• Even temporary receipt of data falls under GDPR
  • KWNPSA site might be under GDPR, WordPress requires cookies
    • Marc has added a cookie disclaimer to https://kwnpsa.ca
    • The cookie form cannot be pre-checked
    • Newsletter subscriptions require double opt-in (subscribe, then confirm)
      • We can no longer add people's names without written permission, or subscribing with an opt-in
      • Marc & Bob gave a demonstration of the Mailman subsription process
  • Fines might be 20,000,000 Euros, or 4% of your profits

• Could one entity cause trouble for another entity by reporting them to GDPR?
  • Compliance is largely self-adhering
  • Getting a whole website shut down isn't really possible, as long as that entity is responsive to GDPR

• Is there an agency that reviews incoming complaints, and finds those entities that don't comply?
  • Not really defined, still setting up the framework for that
  • The European Commission will not fine people, but the individual states' Data Protection Agencies do the enforcement
  • Foreign policies affect relationships between all countries, might trigger or be triggered by other events

• GDPR was an answer to privacy and anti-competitive incidents with Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo

• GDPR provides a clear policy on data collection
  • Gives users a right to see and have corrected the data collected on them
  • Only applies to e-mail (and websites) that affect European users, not e-mail that stays within Canadian borders
    • But Canada has rules of its own, not as strict as GDPR
    • Canadian fines aren't as high, only $100,000
  • In the US the only state that's updating its rules is California
    • But other states are expected to follow California

• GDPR rules just make common sense for the user
  • For website developers it's more onerous
  • Also onerous for those people running secure browsers that clear the cookies allowing cookies...
  • Compliance is built into some frameworks like WordPress.
    • But we (KWNPSA) still need to write and publish our policies on cookies and data retention.
    • The current disclaimer text is no longer adequate, even for Canadian rules
    • GDPR and Canadian rules are moving towards requiring encrypted collected data storage
    • Organizations with 250+ employees must have a full-time, certified GDPR Data Protection Officer
      • But there is as yet no framework for this certification
    • Will there be a standard for encryption?
      • Probably as part of the framework for certification
      • All the usual encryption problems apply (decryption in the server, decryption between storage and transmission)
  • Political organizations, Charities, and Non-Profits don't have to follow the Canadian PIPEDA regulations for mailing lists
    • But CANSPAM still applies (but there are tools and services to check if your fundraising letters are conformant)

• There are stringent rules about publishing policies, reporting breaches, timeline for reporting breaches
• Organizations that are too small to have a dedicated Data Protection Officer can share one between them

• Marc shows some sites that are GDPR conformant, eg. IBM
  • IBM in Germany does not have a cookie popup.
  • Shell has a nicer cookie popup than most (small, unobtrusive box at the bottom)
  • Volvo has every cookie itemized in their policy (GDPR encourages that, Canada is likely to follow)

• There are sites with sample policy wording that can be followed.
  • Do analytics companies like Piwik offer their own sample polices? No, because they could not make it specific enough for all regulations, too much liability

• In Canada:
  • PIPEDA is the equivalent of GDPR, updated in November 2018

• Ultimate goal is to restore people's confidence in spending money on the Web

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