Survey shows 45% of hospitality businesses risk GDPR penalties

A new survey has revealed that 45% of UK hospitality businesses are risking penalties by failing to wipe the memory off redundant IT equipment before disposal.

The survey, carried out by Probrand.co.uk, a digital marketplace for IT products, also found that 97% of hospitality businesses did not have an official process or protocol for disposing of obsolete IT equipment.

Additionally, 97% of hospitality workers surveyed admit they “wouldn’t even know” who to approach within their company in order to correctly dispose of old or unusable equipment. According to the data, hospitality businesses are one of the industries most likely not to wipe existing data off old IT equipment.

Matt Royle, marketing director at Probrand.co.uk, said: “Given the amount of publicity around GDPR it is arguably impossible to be unaware or misunderstand the basics of what is required for compliance. So, it is startling to discover just how many businesses are failing to both implement and follow some of the simplest data protection practices.”

“This is especially startling to see from businesses within the hospitality sector, where sensitive customer information including address details and card numbers are handled all the time.”

He added: “The fines involved in a GDPR breach can potentially run into the millions – and what appear to be less tangible impactors, like reputational damage, customer trust and loyalty, will ultimately become financially significant.

“Given these findings, it is clear that more needs to be done to ensure that all businesses have a disposal procedure in place to avoid inadvertently leaking sensitive data.”