As you may have heard, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect May 25, 2018. This is a policy that will ensure the fundamental right to privacy for its residents, which will give individuals greater say over what, how, why, where, and when their personal data is used, processed, or disposed. Since many of Birkman’s customers are in the EU, we are committed to complying with GDPR.
Birkman has always maintained a level of security that either meets or exceeds data privacy and security regulations in the US and abroad. In 2000, we self-certified with the EU-US and Swiss-US Safe Harbor Frameworks, and then we self-certified with its replacement, Privacy Shield, in 2016. These policies and procedures are available in our Privacy Policy. We are now finalizing preparations for GDPR to ensure diligent compliance across all our teams, systems, and services by May 25th.
What does GDPR mean to you?
In its simplest form, the GDPR requires a lawful basis for processing personally identifiable data (i.e. name, date of birth, job type, etc.). Because Birkman’s primary business model requires this data to provide services to our customers, we fall under the lawful basis of “legitimate interests”. Individuals who take the online Birkman questionnaire have a reasonable expectation that their data will be used to generate reliable, valid, and personalized reporting. This means we do not have to gain consent to process and store the data because the individuals should realize the purpose before proceeding. If that is unclear to the individuals, please make sure you explain fully before proceeding.
Please note: We do not solicit or intentionally collect data from persons under 16 years old nor do we publish content that is targeted at anyone under 16 years old.
GDPR also provides access to several rights for our customers, as well as respondents of the Birkman questionnaire, such as the “right of access” and the “right to rectify” their personal data. This means you, our customer, and those who have completed the Birkman questionnaire, can request a copy of personal data from Birkman. GDPR also requires that you and respondents are given the “right to be forgotten” – you can request that your personally identifiable data be deleted from our database.
What does this mean for our Birkman family of partners, businesses, and consultants?
Birkman has created an informational page on our public site to further explain the GDPR requirements, as well as the steps we are taking to meet these requirements. Visit this page often, as it will be updated regularly.
It is important that you understand how this new regulation may also impact your business. You should plan to review the GDPR information to learn more about any steps you should take to meet these new requirements.
When you log in to BirkmanDirect in the coming weeks, you will be asked to review the updated Birkman Access Agreement and agree to the new terms and conditions revised to include information about the GDPR.
For any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at privacy@birkman.com.
Best,
Beverly Martin
Birkman Privacy Officer
privacy@birkman.com
