Five former waste and sustainability professionals, have launched an online platform to help small businesses improve their data protection and meet the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force on 25th May 2018.
As we already know the EU regulation is designed to give greater rights to individuals to control their own data and how it is used. GDPR puts the emphasis on organisations proving that they are safeguarding personal data when they process it.
Astrid Data Protection was developed with small businesses in mind and provides a secure online platform that not only shows businesses what they need to do but gives them the tools and information they require to take practical steps towards compliance.
The platform also offers a training suite to ensure staff understand their responsibilities and a log to record who has completed training, as well as a secure repository to upload documents and a record of the process businesses have gone through to enable them to demonstrate compliance to the regulator, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) should they need to.
Astrid was set up by Gerrard Fisher, who started looking at data protection in relation to IT reuse. Gerrard went on to train formally as a GDPR practitioner and turned to former colleagues and associates from his time working for WRAP and in wider sustainability roles to help him get the business off the ground.
Gerrard says: “It’s been a great experience, launching Astrid with four former colleagues and associates whose skills and expertise I greatly respect. It’s given Astrid a well-rounded board of directors who happen to share a background in sustainability and waste. “We have found many businesses just don’t know where to start when looking to become GDPR compliant and are hugely appreciative of the support we provide. We have worked really hard to break our process down into manageable steps to remove the fear factor and provide the resources small businesses need to help them on their journey. So far, it’s been very well received”.
