GDPR - What is all the fuss about?

May 25th is behind us and the Earth is still spinning. This probably is the best time to sit back and calmly assess where you are in business with respect to GDPR compliance. The last two years have had the global business in a frenzy. As with most deadlines, the last two months is when most of us seem to have woken up to GDPR.   

While the businesses have had GDPR nightmares, common people have been basking in the attention and importance given to data protection and an individual's rights to personal data. In most of the interactions had with organizations and individuals, GDPR-understanding felt like that  fable of 6 blind men describing an elephant. 

To break some myths around GDPR and help understand GDPR in lay people's terms, we'll be sharing a few posts over the next few weeks. Do follow this series, share your thoughts, ask questions if any.

Getting started

If you are a business that's been grappling with GDPR law and want to take stock of what you have complied with, how much you should do, and how to ensure continue being compliant, it's important to do these three basic things:

1. Get familiar with the GDPR lingo and keep repeating them everyday so it becomes common language and ceases to be that nightmare.

2. It's a good idea to try and understand what GDPR is not. This lets you breathe easy and you know that life is still normal like the pre-bigdata/metadata days!

3. And then stop being in denial about GDPR being for real and start making that checklist.  Keep updating the checklist. And work towards ticking off the items on that list.

Breaking down the GDPR lingo

You've had a good start to understanding and internalizing GDPR if you are already liberally interspersing your conversations with the following terms:

• Consent
  
• Legitimate interest
  
• Personal data
  
• Privacy policy
  
• EU datacenter
  
• DPIA
  
• Data protection
  
• Data collection
  
• Data processing
  
• Data governance
  

We'll look into each of these terms and more in detail in the next few posts.

What GDPR is not

1. Whatever GDPR maybe, it certainly is not a mean monster out to get you to pay heavy penalties. Huge penalty is just one of the consequences of not respecting users' right to their data privacy :)

2. GDPR did not materialize from thin air. It replaced decades old EU data protection laws that are now redundant with the advent of Internet as we see, use, and rely on today.

3. 'Consent' is one of the most misunderstood properties of GDPR. It is just one of the several ways in which you can establish GDPR compliance.

4. GDPR is not here to make it difficult for the rest of the world to engage in business with Europe.

5. Achieving compliance is not merely checking those boxes and claiming compliance by May 25th, 2018. It has just come into effect and is a work in progress. Which means, organizations will continue to operate on this framework and strive to contain the existing activities within the prescribed framework too.

What GDPR really is

EU has had data protection laws for over two decades.  In fact, it is supposed to have started way back in 1948 with the ECHR !  With Internet and technology changing the way business happens, the EU laws that prevailed until 2 years ago were redundant and required a massive rehaul:

1. GDPR is a set of rules that replaced the 1995 Data Protection directive.

2. The rules apply to all the companies across the globe if they engage in business with customers in Europe.

3. These laws are made a bit more stringent to ensure that companies do all it takes to protect the rights of individuals over their personal data.

4. These rules apply to organizations that collect data of individuals.

5. It empowers users with new rights over their data.

The European commission followed this up with a new ePrivacy proposal in January 2017. We'll discuss this in detail in one of the upcoming posts that are aimed at bringing us all up to speed on understanding and ensuring GDPR compliance.

Setting aside all the speculations, varied interpretations, and understanding, it's a good idea to embrace the law and here is why:

1. It's a move in the positive direction for organizations as it helps shed bad practices in handling customer data.

2. It is always a good feeling (and safe) to fall back on legalized framework.  The room for errors or mishandling are greatly reduced.

3. GDPR and ePrivacy, fixes accountability and defines rules to bring about this accountability instead of leaving it open to interpretations and ambiguity.

4. And in every sense, companies will be putting the customers first.  This is a sure shot way to succeed in an era driven by Internet and AI. 

Stay tuned for more updates on all things GDPR!

• Topic Participants

• Vidya Vasudevan

  

• Recent Topics

• Has anyone built a ticket export that allows Help Center users to export the tickets shown in the My Area list they are looking at?

  Hi, We are moving to Zoho Desk soon. Our current support system displays an option in our help center allowing customers to export their Open, Closed, or all tickets based on which list they are looking at. We need to offer the same in Zoho Desk help

• Unified customer portal login

  As I'm a Zoho One subscriber I can provide my customers with portal access to many of the Zoho apps. However, the customer must have a separate login for each app, which may be difficult for them to manage and frustrating as all they understand is that

• Tracking Implementations

  We create Opportunities (Renamed Deals) with associated Quotes (renamed Products and Services). When we close the deal, we want to be able to track the implementation of each product separately. For instance, the client may have ordered Item A, Item B

• Values in multi pick list are not copied to copied deal

  Hi, After a deal is completed in our sales funnel we copy the deal to an automatically created new deal in our project funnel. All fields are copied properly, but only a Multi Pick List is not copied. How can we copy the selected values in this field

• Is this link the transparent pixel used to track opens?

  Could someone please help me identify this highlighted link? It is automatically created by Zoho and a lot of contacts receiving campaigns will click on this link. I don't believe that it is the "update your preferences link" because on the Link Clicks

• Zoho desk desktop application

  does zoho desk has a destop applicaion?

• How can I view Help Center articles in 'Sandbox' mode?

  I have published some help center articles but when I try to preview the knowledge base page, it says 'We have no content to display'.

• Is this possible with Campaigns?

  My company is currently moving CRM's from Monday to Zoho One. Currently, our marketing lead process is send out 7 sms messages over 14 days if the lead is in a certain status. If we don't get a response the lead is put into a "Closed" status. Do we buy

• Error 403: Forbidden When Updating Email Signature via API

  Hi Zoho Desk team, First, congratulations again on the excellent Zoho API. But, I’m encountering an issue while attempting to update an email signature via the API. Whenever I make a request to update the signature, the response returns an HTTP 403 Forbidden

• Opening & working multiple tickets

  We work in multiple tickets at the same time. Currently to do this, we have to open multiple instances of Desk.  Is there a way to do this by just opening multiple ticket tabs within 1 instance of Desk?  

• Different content per social media account..

  Is there a way to add different content per social media account on one post?

• Using AVG in SQL Query

  My current SQL Query is: SELECT "Client Info", avg("Revenue") FROM "Funded Deals" GROUP BY "Client Info" The current table that this is creating: Client Info avg(Revenue) Previous 4175 1st - New 3411 1st - Old 3013 Renew 3069 While this works as I had

• Merge tickets

  Hello, I am attempting to merge two tickets; however, the option to merge does not appear to be available. Could you kindly confirm if this feature has been relocated or removed? Additionally, could you please provide guidance on the correct process to

• Add "Merge by Ticket ID" Option on Ticket Screen

  Dear Zoho Team, We would like to request a new feature for the ticket interface in Zoho Desk. Specifically, we propose adding a button to the ticket screen that allows users to merge the current ticket with another ticket by directly providing the second

• Using tickets to train Zia

  Hi Team, I would like to know if there is any way that Zia can also learn from previous tickets in addition to the articles from the knowledge base. Since we have most of our knowledge curerently in the tickets and that this is hard to combine into a

• Unable to delete Junk Lead and Not Qualified from the Lead Status field

  Are Junk Lead and Not Qualified default fields or something that cannot be deleted? I have gone into the Leads module and made sure there are no records using these values. Other values have a minus sign that allows me to remove them, but these two fields do not have that option.

• Welcome Link Expired

  Hi The links sent to the users didn't get clicked on in time and now all the links have expired. Is there a way to send a new link without deleting them and re-adding them>

• How can I create individual records from a subform

  Hi, I am collecting subform data into a Lead record and I need to create individual records for each row associated to the account when it is converted. How can I do this?

• Alert for Back Navigation in Zoho Creator Widgets on Mobile Apps

  In Zoho Creator widgets, when a user navigates back on mobile devices, the data within the widget is reset. This leads to a loss of any unsaved changes or inputs, causing frustration for users. To enhance user experience, we need to implement a confirmation

• Zoho Developer Community Monthly Digest - December 2024

  Hello everyone! As we step into the new year, let’s reflect on the strides we’ve made together and gear up for the exciting opportunities 2025 holds. This month’s digest highlights key updates, engaging discussions, and upcoming events designed to keep

• Allow "add new" option to picklists and multiselection fields from add or edit pages

  Hello zoho, please insert an add option (ie +)sign) to pick and multiselect fields so we can add new options while entering or editing records. For example. in my lead module, while adding a new record, I realized I had a new lead source. I went to my

• Need warehouse listed on packing slips

  We ship from several locations, and have a separate warehouse set up for each location in Zoho. I need the warehouse related to each SO to show up on the packing list. How do I make that happen?

• Enhancements to Zoho Corp Help Center "Team Requests" View

  Dear Zoho Team, I hope this message finds you well. The ability to view both my tickets and my team’s tickets in the Zoho Corp Help Center is a fantastic feature, especially as the focal point for Zoho in our organization. However, we’ve encountered a

• We've revised the pricing model of CRM portal user licenses

  Hello everyone, We’re making important updates to our pricing structure for portal user licenses, effective from the next payment cycle. The new slab-based pricing is as follows: Previously, these portal user licenses were priced at $5/ user/ month. As

• Zoho and Hostaway webhok integration.

  I want to receive data coming from hostaway webhook and receive it in zoho crm to create or update record in a module based on conditions. The hostaway webhook sends data every time a reservation is created or modified or cancelled. The hostaway sends

• Layout Prompt when creating an oportunity

  Hi There, Is there a way to create a pop-up prompt when I create a new Deal giving me the option of what layout to use based on a certain requirement? So, if the prompt had two options 1. is a new business Deal 2. is a renewal Deal Thanks in advance

• Allow standard layout to be used/edited as a starting point for canvas

  Hello, I would really love to improve the look of our CRM interface using Canvas but we have spent so much time customising the screens already (in standard view) that the thought of starting from scratch and building everything again, field by field,

• A recap of Zoho Sprints 2024

• Unable to create custom fields for shipment order

  I'm unable to create custom fields for shipment orders, even though the custom fields are set up correctly. A request to the following endpoint: https://www.zohoapis.com/inventory/v1/settings/preferences/customfields?organization_id=${ZOHO_ORGANIZATION_ID}&entity=shipment_order

• Records per page in New UI

  It seems the new UI lack of "Records per page" function, it is very handy if you are looking for a data that you don't know the exact search term, but you know it may "between" few entries. without a "page" function, we kind of have to keep page down and page, the autoload is not that fast, and you are dealing with thousands of entries. Could we please have the "records per page" function back to New UI (also it shows total counts of the record) Looking forward to hear from you.

• zet pack not working

  We are using the zet pack command to package our Zoho extension. However, after running the command, the extension gets packed, but the resulting package is empty. We've attached a screenshot for reference. Could you please assist us with resolving this

• CSV File Added to Form - Parse and Map to Fields

  Hi,  I apologize, I can't seem to find a clear explanation or help article on how to parse a CSV file. On validate, I process this deluge script. fileContent = Collection(input.File_upload.content); result = fileContent.values(); info result; What I want to do is create a record (in another form), and map certain fields to fields in the form.  I can get values, which is the whole file but no keys. If I use result = fileContent.keys(); I get "0" As you can see from CSV, my first line is my map and

• Encountered an error while creating a bill in Zoho Inventory: {"code":6,"message":"Invalid data provided"}

  I attempted to create a bill using the Zoho Inventory API, but I received an error: {"code":6,"message":"Invalid data provided"}. However, when I made the same request again, it was successful. Does anyone have insights on why this happened?

• Free user licenses across all Portal user types

  Greetings everyone, We're here with some exciting and extensive changes to the availability of free user licenses in CRM Portals. This update provides users with access to all Portal user types for free to help them diversify their user licenses and explore

• Custom "Filter By" in Client Portal

  Currently our client portal only shows items for that specific person that is logged on to the portal, we want the current logged user to see all items for that user's company. An example would be invoices, so the current user would see all invoices for

• Why do I need to send the Customer ID in the Create Purchase Order Request?

  I'm trying to create a purchase order using this endpoint https://www.zoho.com/inventory/api/v1/purchaseorders/#create-a-purchase-order Unfortunately, I'm getting this error { "code": 4, "message": "Invalid value passed for Customer ID" } The doc doesn't

• How to Retrieve Serial Numbers of Items in Zoho Inventory via API?

  Hello, I am currently working with the Zoho Inventory API and need to retrieve the serial numbers associated with specific items in our inventory. After reviewing the documentation, I couldn’t find an endpoint dedicated to fetching serial numbers for

• merging email accounts

  previously I was using 5 mail pop mailboxes within VO , 2 of them are becoming obsolete so I was thinking about deleting the obsolete ones and merge the remainders into my main account mailbox within VO , is this possible ? thnx in advance.

• Queries filtered by current page/record

  I have been trying to use the new queries feature, and I can filter the query, but I'm coming unstuck because I don't understand how to make the query dynamically include the filter of the current record. ie if I'm on a deal, to filter all the records

• ZohoPeople API - Retrieve leave type IDs

  Hi All, I have created a leave type in Zoho People UI. Now I need to fetch the  Leave Type ID of it. As per the documentation[1] I used the  curl request [2]. But I ended up with the error response from the API.  {"response":{"message":"Error occurred","errors":{"message":"Server Error Occured","code":7031},"status":1,"uri":"/api/leave/getLeaveTypes"}} The new API[3] does not tell anything on how to retrieve the Leave Type ID.  Have you done any changes to the API recently. If so please let me know

• Next Page