UK pubs and restaurant set task of learning complex GDPR laws

Pubs and restaurants in the UK are to open next week but have been told they should collect the contact information of their customers, which could put many establishments at odds with GDPR law.

In the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in the UK, pubs and restaurants will be allowed to open from July 4th onwards, providing they allow for current social distancing guidelines.

Not only should such establishments allow for social distancing, the government has also recommended they collect customer contact information for track and tracing purposes, and hold that data for 21 days.

However this advice could fall foul of European privacy laws – specifically GDPR – which the UK is still subject to until the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31st 2020.

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GDPR is the set of regulations that govern how companies treat customer data, including what data they can collect, how it can be used and how that data must be stored and for how long.

GDPR is an in-depth set of privacy regulations, and has proved tricky for many businesses. This, coupled with the fact that many pubs and restaurants are not your typical controller of customer data (at least not in any significant way) means this could potentially result in some serious privacy related headaches for businesses across England. And with everything going on right now in the midst of a pandemic and struggling economy, this is probably the last thing UK business owners want to be dealing with.

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And to add to the problem, while the UK government has said they will help business owners with the collection and handling of customer data, there is currently no advice available right now. And many pubs and restaurants are going to be open (at the time of writing) in a mere ten days’ time. Businesses don’t even know what information they should be collecting, let alone the numerous requirements for data handling that go along with it.

We suspect that this last minute rush to explain GDPR to businesses that may very well have not even heard of the term before isn’t going to run particularly smoothly.

And none of this is to mention that a significant portion of the population in the UK have expressed concern over the use of track and tracing apps, so it’s hard to believe they’ll willingly hand over accurate information at the pub entrance.