Anyone in Europe with an email account has this week been deluged with requests seeking their consent to keep on receiving communications from a multitude of organisations. Some are handy reminders of the wealth of information we now have at our fingertips. Others read like plaintive missives from jilted lovers.
This flood of emails has been triggered by the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force across the EU’s 28 member states on Friday. The law is intended to give users more control and choice over how their personal data is gathered, stored and used.
For some, GDPR amounts to little more than an exercise in administrative frustration. One of the most resonant email requests I received came from the London start-up incubator Second Home: “We know, at this point, seeing ‘GDPR’ in your inbox is likely to be driving you to your own choice of four letter words . . . ”