This time last year in Southeast Asia, these four letters, “GDPR”, were almost unheard of. Now, as its effective date rapidly approaches, it’s difficult to find a day when my own inbox is not hit with at least two or three emails warning me to “get ready because GDPR is coming”. The General Data Protection Regulation is an EU initiative which safeguards the privacy and security of European citizens’ personal data stored by companies, organisations and even governments. Once it is officially active, companies that are proven to breach GDPR rules are liable for very significant fines.