For companies, the secure destruction of confidential and sensitive data is a legal obligation. In Belgium, the General Regulation on Data Protection (GDPR) and the July 30, 2018 law strictly regulate the processing of personal data.
Companies must respect these regulations and establish procedures ensuring the security and confidentiality of information, under the risk of heavy sanctions. That's why calling on a company specialized in data destruction like Val Your Stock is essential to comply with the current legislation.
Personal data gather all information allowing to identify directly or indirectly a physical person. This includes names, addresses, phone numbers, but also location data, online identifiers or biometric elements.
The processing of these data, from their collection to their communication through their use, is strictly regulated. Any company handling personal data must respect the GDPR (General Regulation on Data Protection) put in place in Europe, but also the Belgian law on
In Belgium, the July 30, 2018 law relative to the protection of physical persons in relation to the processing of personal data data transposes the GDPR into national law. This law details the conditions of legitimacy of the processing of personal data. It applies to all public or private entities established in Belgium or processing data of persons residing on the Belgian territory, whatever the place of effective processing.
The Belgian law covers certain aspects left to the discretion of the Member States by the GDPR. It for example sets the age of consent at 13 years instead of 16 years. It also provides for exceptions to the respect of the rights of persons when the processing of data pursues scientific, historical or statistical research objectives.
Complying with the GDPR and the Belgian July 30, 2018 law is an absolute obligation for all companies operating in the Brussels region or elsewhere in Belgium, whatever their size or their business sector. In case of serious non-compliance, the sanctions provided for are extremely heavy.
Administrative amendments can reach up to 20 million euros or, for companies, up to 4% of their global annual consolidated revenue, the highest amount being retained. These record amendments particularly apply in case of non-compliance with the fundamental principles of data processing or violation of the rights of the persons concerned.
But that's not all: the Belgian law also provides for criminal sanctions in case of serious infringements, which can go up to imprisonment. The persons concerned may also bring legal action against the responsible processors or faulty subcontractors.
Given the legal risks and the potential impact on their reputation, it is essential for companies to be
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