Greetings from Portsmouth, NH, USA!

This week, I’m here at the IAPP headquarters in a little city by the sea to look at the big picture for 2016. As you might imagine, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) looms large. It is no hyperbole to say it will be the biggest piece of privacy legislation to hit the books in 20 years, and it seems hard to believe that any corporation in Europe won’t be affected in some way. 

Sometimes, it seems hard to believe that any corporation in the world won’t be affected. 

Quite simply, we live in a global world nowadays. While here in the states, I’m still constantly in touch with my mates over Facebook (celebrating Arsenal’s Champions League triumph yesterday, for example), with my family over FaceTime and with the world via Twitter. The boys here have given me a primer on the latter. Watch out world. 

Seriously, though, data is moving faster than ever and farther afield, and the GDPR is a piece of law that will be felt in every corner of the globe. The way things are shaping up, we can expect an increased demand for data protection officers, both you, the IAPP members and a huge number more, who will have to be trained and brought up to speed on the many intricacies of data protection and privacy. We’re here to help, of course, with a GDPR Comprehensive scheduled for February and a slew of resources in our Resource Center as part of the GDPR landing page. 

Please make sure to let me know what other information we can be providing. And look for an immediate response from us as soon as we’ve got hold of the final text of the document. I don’t envy the negotiators in trilogue; just two more meetings to finalize a document that’s been in the works for almost five years, all told, and runs to nearly 200 pages. Here’s good luck to them, and a steady supply of lattes. They’ll need it.