GDPR is here: Mess Up and we'll fine you, warns EU privacy chief

From tech giant Facebook Inc. to libraries and schools, organizations are now subject to the world’s most far-reaching data privacy regulation in a crackdown aimed at protecting people from losing control over their personal information.

It’s occupied thousands of lawyers, taken years of planning and triggered billions of emails.

Mess up now and you can expect very little tolerance, warns Andrea Jelinek, the Austrian in charge of policing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which took effect on May 25.

“If there are reasons to warn we will warn; if there are reasons to reprimand we will do that; and if we have reasons to fine, we are going to fine,” Jelinek, 57, told reporters ahead of the big day. Asked about criticism that some regulators are more lenient than others, she said that “it was like that in the past, but it should not continue in the future.”