What Do You Need To Know About GDPR As Mobile App Owner?

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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is regarded to be a globally acclaimed data protection, compliance, and privacy regulation created by the European Union, basically deals with the mobile app data of the citizens living within the European Union (EU). Even if your app belongs to any other country, when dealing with the data of EU citizens, the GDPR applies.

If you are into the mobile app development business and target the global market, you must have a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of these GDPR rules. Here we are going to discuss various aspects of GDPR and its importance.

A brief overview of GDPR

The GDPR refers to an EU regulatory framework to safeguard the right to privacy of personal information. Announced way back in 2016, the regulation has given two years to the apps to comply with the regulation. The law applies to any mobile app responsible for collecting user data in EU nations.

Irrespective of wherever you are operating from, if your app has any user in any EU nation, it must comply with these guidelines and rules. GDPR rules cover almost all aspects of data privacy and security. GDPR covers as many different facets of data privacy as the need to take user consent for collecting information to the right to knowledge of the instances of data breaching. Some of the key aspects covered by GDPR include the following.

• Need of explicit and unambiguous consent from the app users regarding the collection of personal information.
• Data protection measures embedded by default into design
• Easy access for the users to data
• User’s right to data portability
• User’s right to forget data
• Stringent implementation of the data privacy rules
• In case of data breaches, the right to know the time and instance of data breaches

For the express purpose of complying with these stringent rules, any app development company and publisher needs to ensure embedding the necessary controls within the app and implement special data protection and privacy approach. It is advisable to incorporate the best practices to comply with these regulations by the following Privacy by Design principle. This allows introducing necessary controls and compliance checks by default where they are necessary.

The key reasons behind the increasing importance of GDPR

Undoubtedly, an essential regulatory framework like GDPR that can impact the use of mobile apps so crucially needs to be taken seriously by app owners. In this respect, we found it essential to explain the importance of GDPR below.

Ensuring Explicit User Consent

When it comes to collecting and using user data, any app needs to comply with the requirements of seeking explicit consent from the users. Creating a strict regulation regarding this GDPR leaves no room for unsolicited access and use of app user data.

According to this regulation, the app needs to seek the consent of the users at the right time before using their data without leaving any confusion on their parts. On the other hand, users must be provided complete freedom to withdraw consent at any time during the time they are regarded as app users.

Right to be Forgotten

As per the GDPR, any app user within European Union enjoys the express right to erase all his data. Any time they can prevent mobile app developers from accessing and using their data.

Once they withdraw consent, they can also prevent future uses and publication of their data by the app developers or any third parties involved. The app must have an inbuilt option to allow users to delete their data or prevent access to their data by the app developers and third parties at any time.

Mandatory Notifications for Data Breaches

In all cases of unforeseen occurrences of data breaches or security leaks resulting in compromise on data security, app owners need to inform users within maximum 72 hours. The notifications should have details about the reasons and the length and nature of the data breaches.

Ensuring Privacy by Design

Privacy by design is a requirement that states that, well before facilitating app development, all the development attributes need to comply fully with the GDPR rules.

According to this requirement, access to data by default app infrastructure will be provided to only designated people responsible for the processing. The developers also need to ensure proper data handling practices and security encryptions throughout development.

Data Protection Officers

GDPR also regulates that the app project must employ data protection officers responsible for protecting data protection by following the best practices and regulations in place.

What GDPR rules mean for apps?

GDPR requirements are strong enough to revolutionize data security practices in mobile apps. The question is, are they going to put more constraints on the growth opportunities and outreach scopes of mobile apps? Or are they doing good with mobile apps?

To be precise, just as the Black Hat SEO tactics prevented bad practices from websites to manipulate search engine results, GDPR in mobile apps will only prevent data management, data handling, and privacy protection practices that are unethical, manipulative, and harmful to the end-users.

Naturally, apps with legitimate data security practices and apps that protect users’ privacy, an essential element of their caring and user-focused brand, will benefit from GDPR. This will help apps automatically do away with all shortcomings concerning data privacy and data security.

Conclusion

GDPR came as a significant and promising change to the app world by addressing several shortcomings of data privacy and data security practices. Unrolled only for protecting the data privacy rights of EU citizens, it can be modeled by data security and privacy regulations in other parts of the world. In that respect, GDPR offers a clear direction to the future of best data privacy practices in mobile apps.