Charities claim they have not got enough time for GDPR

Despite being given over two years to get in shape for the EU data protection reforms – like ever other industry – the charity sector is demanding special treatment, calling on the Information Commissioner’s Office to “consider a process of transition” for charities.
The demand has been included in the Institute of Fundraising’s response to the ICO’s consent guidance consultation on the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), launched last month; the deadline to respond was March 31.
The IoF has urged the ICO to “consider a process of transition for organisations so that they have the necessary time to adapt to new requirements”, claiming that “time is so short” until GDPR will come into effect in May 2018.
In the IoF response, head of policy and research Daniel Fluskey insisted that certain areas of the ICO’s consent guidance were still too muddled.
Fluskey said: “It is now coming up to one year before GDPR is implemented and charities need clear and final guidance on which they can rely and make decisions. With time so short, we hope that the ICO will consider a process of transition for organisations so that they have the necessary time to adapt to new requirements.”
“The standard for consent is raised under GDPR, and we think that the guidance could be clearer and more helpful for charities in certain areas. Some of the specific areas we’d ask the ICO to look at include a more joined up approach in the presentation of the guidance so that organisations understand different legal conditions for processing data and fundraising activity.
“At the heart of this would be a clearer illustration of ‘opt-in’ and ‘opt-out’, and examples to explain how consent or legitimate interest can be used to process an individual’s data fairly and lawfully.”

TOPICS:charities data protection EU data reforms GDPR ICO IoF