On 16 December 2021, the Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency in cooperation with the organized a workshop for SMEs “How to comply with the GDPR during the Covid-19 pandemic” at the premises of the Croatian Employers’ Association.
This workshop was one of the activities organized by the Croatian data protection authority within the ARC project (Awareness Raising Campaign for SMEs), co-financed by the EU program “Rights, Equality and Citizenship”. Project manager Anamarija Mladinić pointed out that the project is implemented with the aim of supporting micro, small and medium enterprises in harmonizing business processes with the provisions of the GDPR through the implementation of various project activities: workshops, development of guidance, self-assessment checklists and templates.
The Agency’s experts pointed out that taking the effort to understand the obligations from the GDPR is the key step that needs to be taken on the road to compliance. There are no easy and “one size fits all” solutions. However, the focus of the workshop was on the current topic that causes the most doubts in the private sector, and that is how to harmonize their business and properly process personal data in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the workshop, the experts from the Agency have been answering to various questions of the SMEs related to the processing of personal data in the context of the implementation of the Decisions of the Civil Protection Headquarters.
“This year, the Agency paid special attention to its advisory role, and despite the limitations, we held over 50 workshops for SMEs and data protection officers. This is the first workshop we are organizing in cooperation with the Croatian Employers’ Association, but we will continue our cooperation next year and together we will organize workshops in regional centers throughout Croatia. It is very important that everyone who processes personal data is well informed about their obligations, comply with the provisions of the data protection legal framework, and in this way avoid financial and reputational damage that non-compliance may cause to their business”.
