29 May GDPR and the Artist Formally Known as Prince!

As I return to work after a well-rested bank holiday weekend, I can’t help but ponder on the last week.

There was nervousness, sweaty palms, whispers, a feeling of panic, email after email and a real sense of doom. It’s funny because I remember having this feeling once before.

Let me take you back eighteen whole years. Yes, for those of us getting on a bit, it really was eighteen years ago!! For the youngsters among us, I’ll share a little story.

Once upon a time, a Prince (or an artist formally known as Prince) wrote a song about the year 1999. He claimed that when that year came we were going to seriously party.

Now, given that this Prince wrote the song back in 1982 (I know, the dark ages), it felt a little premature to be thinking about partying like it’s 1999 because at that time, those around my age were only just out of nappies so it seemed an age away!

But it came quickly. Time passed quicker than anyone could have anticipated and surely enough, we really did party like it’s 1999. Only it actually was!!! The very last year of the twentieth century was upon us and we were facing a new Millennium.

There was an issue with the calendars. Suddenly, the Prince and all his subjects (AKA the population of the free world) were going to be taken down by this villain that no-one knew how to stop. His name was (It’s a bit like Voldemort, I really don’t want to say it) …Y2K! Eek!!!

Also known as the Millennium Bug, this villain was set to take down our technology, wipe out all our data, erase all our funds and pretty much leave us with nothing but the normal life we had always led.

The fear among the subjects was phenomenal. No one knew how to stop the villain so as midnight on the 31^st December 1999 approached, we all hid under our sofa’s and prepared for the world’s end. (Ok, not really, we were all out partying, but you get the picture!!!!)

As the clock struck twelve, it felt as though time stood still. Amazingly though, it didn’t. The clocks didn’t stop, the banks didn’t shut down (which meant we could keep on partying), the lights were still on, the DJ was still playing, the TV still worked, the computers still switched on and I could still call a taxi to take me home.

Phew! What a nightmare! So, what happened to the villain?

Well the truth is, I don’t think anyone knew…. until recently.

It appears, like Voldemort, he took himself off into hiding when his plan didn’t work but has somehow, with the help of his minions (the staff at the ICO office), gained strength, and he has once again reared his ugly head.

Unfortunately, the Prince has sadly gone on to rule another world so we were left to fend for ourselves!!!

The villain, who has now changed his name to (I’m hiding again) GDPR, came back! Once again, he drove fear through the hearts of every business person in the UK. His band of soldiers came to us and told us we would not survive this fight unless we sent out forty thousand emails to other business owners by the 25^th May.

They made us think that the world under his ruling would be impossible to survive in, it terrified even the hardest of business people.

I have chills going down my spine as I write this.

So, the twenty fifth of May 2018 came. After many of the countries subjects complied with the wishes of GDPR and sent out thousands and thousands of emails to people who had never heard of them, it all went quiet.

It’s now Tuesday, four whole days after the event and once again, after the terror of the events of the 25^th, the villain seems to have left us once more.

We are all here, still in business, with less spam but still in contact with our important clients as well as our prospective clients.

Whilst I do feel the villain has won to some extent; he has reigned the countries subjects in, I feel his wrath was once again an anti-climax and all the countries businesses have, without exception, all lived happily ever after!!!