What is the GDPR?

This episode of Techsplainers explores the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and why it has become one of the most influential privacy laws in the world. The episode explains how the GDPR defines personal data, why it was created to modernize Europe’s earlier privacy framework, and how it applies both inside and outside the EU and EEA. It walks through the regulation’s inside and outside the EU and EEA. It walks through the regulation’s core principles, the six lawful bases for processing data, and the rights it gives individuals, including access, correction, erasure, portability and protections related to automated decision-making. The discussion also examines what GDPR compliance requires from organizations in practice, from maintaining records of processing activities to adopting privacy by design, conducting impact assessments, managing cross-border data transfers and reporting data breaches. Along the way, the episode connects GDPR to broader issues such as digital sovereignty and the responsible use of AI, showing why privacy governance now reaches well beyond legal teams and into product design, security and operations. Find more information at https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/gdpr Find all the Techsplainers episodes here: https://www.ibm.biz/techsplainers-podcast Narrated by Amanda Downie