Feb 19, 2018
Last week (Tuesday, February 13th, 2018) Stott and May partnered up with Exonar to host a Java MeetUp which presented the technical challenges and opportunities around the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which I’m delighted to say was hugely successful.
The concept was simple, attract many technical professionals in one room to discuss a hot topic which affects everyone. The event took place at our Reading offices it was a great chance to network and gain insightful information from an industry leading technologist, Aeham Abushwashi (Head of Engineering at Exonar) whilst having a relaxing evening with food and refreshments.
The purpose of the event was not only to gain knowledge, share, and network but to openly discuss the impact of GDPR, technically and to the wider business. It was also an opportunity to showcase Exonar’s technology, what they have achieved during the impact of GDPR, and talk about how agile they’ve been in their development over the years. Exonar is an exciting software vendor that provide leading Data Management solutions. Exonar solves common issues all businesses face in terms of the organisation, preservation and storage of data. By mapping out companies’ information from databases to documents, Exonar uses machine learning to understand what’s important, where it’s stored and who has access to it.
GDPR is a highly important regulation which will affect all organisations who intake/process any form of European citizen’s personal data and information. The GDPR is designed to strengthen and unify data protection for European individuals as well as giving them additional rights such as the right to be erased or the right to port their data. It comes into effect on the 25th May 2018 and the consequences of non-compliance have been well documented.
Aeham focused his presentation on how GDPR changes data ownership, how pre GDPR data will be owned by the collector, and post GDPR data will be owned by the subject. The key concepts covered, regulation, personal data, data subject, controller and processer.
We created an open forum which included software developers through to technical directors discussing individual circumstances, challenges and other knock on effects of GDPR both technical and non-technical. More so, it showcased how prominent and important it is moving forward for firms to have a good grasp of GDPR and to put in place a high degree of governance.
The event aimed to inform tech professionals of the impact and importance of GDPR and showcase Exonar as a company at the heart of GDPR, how they have utilised and improved their business in accordance to GDPR and how it has enabled them to grow. Exonar are constantly looking for exceptional technical professionals to join their expanding dynamic team. They have just received large scale investment and the Founder has been voted one of the UK top entrepreneur’s. This is great opportunity for anyone looking to make an impact within an innovative tech company – if this sounds like the company for you and you would like more information please feel free to get in touch!
We had a great attendance at the event and after the success of this and previous Agile Valley MeetUps we will be formalising and putting together many more over the course of the year. Please click here to find out more about getting involved.
