Regulatory compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or how IT business should adapt in times of legislative turbulence

A seminar focused on financial and legal issues titled “Current challenges of IT Business” was held in Odessa on April 6, 2017.

The event was organized by IT Cluster Odessa, SBT Systems Ukraine, PwC Ukraine and Ukrsibbank.

2017 brings new challenges for IT Industry, in particular the new IMF requirements regarding private entrepreneurs, new bills on wage and dealing with financial institutions.  That was the main idea behind the seminar discussion held between industry representatives and key experts that centered on finding effective ways to adapt IT business in times of such turbulence.

Andrey Pronchenko, Managing partner, and Olga Romanenko, Head of IP, IT and Data Protection practices with Attorney’s Association “PwC Legal” were invited to speak at the event.

Andriy shared with the audience his expert opinion on the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that will be effective in 14 months.

Olga told participants what IT business should get ready for in regard to the entry into force of the GDRP. In particular, Olga pointed out that the new Regulation will have extraterritorial effect and impact operations of Ukrainian business. The Regulation introduces a number of new requirements for companies engaged in collection, processing and transfer of personal data, in particular, it requires in certain cases to create a new position of Data Protection Officer and expands rights of data subjects.

Olga also emphasized that companies should start adapting their IT processes to the new requirements now, so that they will have enough time to complete the transition before May of 2018.