Insight: many small firms still not prepared for GDPR
New research has shown that 33% of small businesses have not yet started preparing for the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation.
The study by the Federation of Small Businesses shows that 35% are only in the early stages of preparations while only 8% have completed their preparations.
In light of the findings, FSB is launching a GDPR awareness raising campaign in the run up to the 25 May deadline.
A sector breakdown shows that 41% of small business polled in the retail and wholesale sectors have not yet started preparations while 50% have started but not completed them. Meanwhile just 3% have completed preparations.
The FSB found that hospitality and arts & entertainment firms are the least prepared with over half of respondents in these industries having not yet started preparing for the changes. Small businesses in the financial services sector were found to be the most prepared with 82% of respondents having started or completed their GDPR preparations.
Mike Cherry, FSB national chairman, said: “The GDPR is the biggest shake-up in data protection to date and many small businesses will be concerned that the changes will be too much to handle. It’s clear that a large part of the small business community is still unaware of the steps that they need to take to comply and may be left playing catch-up.”
