On Tuesday 30th January the DBS Comp Soc were delighted to host a guest lecture on the topic of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is coming into effect across the EU on May 25th. The event attracted great interest from all across the college with students and staff from IT, Law, Business and Marketing amongst those who attended the packed event. Approximately 120 people gathered in Castle House to hear Mr Graham Doyle, Head of Communications from the Data Protection Commission office along with his colleague MB Donnelly, Head of GDPR Awareness and Training, speak about the upcoming changes to data protection regulations.

The presentation which was scheduled to last for 1.5 hours, continued well past that time due to the level of interest and volume of informed questions put forward by students and staff. The session was centered around the implications of the upcoming GDPR for both individuals and organisations. GDPR will bring about seismic changes to data protection regulations across the EU, and will impact not only companies based in Europe but will also incorporate any company from outside jurisdictions operating into Europe and holding data on EU citizens. With potential fines of up to 4% of global turnover for companies found to be in breach of the regulations it's being taken very seriously by organisations.