HFTP Hospitality DPO Task Force Outlines Objectives as Industry Prepares for GDPR May 2018 Deadline

Preparing for the new EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), a framework legislated by all EU member states with a required compliance date of May 25, 2018, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) has taken the initiative to develop hospitality-specific guidelines and a certification for a Hospitality Data Protection Officer (HDPO). The building of these resources is underway by a team of 23 experts, recruited by HFTP to comprise the HFTP Hospitality DPO task force. The task force chair Alvaro Hidalgo, managing partner with FIRSTLOGIC Consulting based in Spain, has outlined the objectives for the group in the months leading up to the May compliance deadline, detailed in the post on the HFTP Connect blog, "HFTP Hospitality DPO Task Force Outlines Objectives as Industry Prepares for GDPR May 2018 Deadline."

HFTP chief operations officer Lucinda Hart, CAE, MBA, explained why this initiative is integral to the association's strategic goals. "The GDPR is greatly impacting the hospitality industry and the dedication that HFTP and our members have committed to industry awareness demonstrates HFTP's commitment to assisting our stakeholders in finding solutions to their challenges more efficiently than any organization," she said.

The HFTP HDPO Task Force held its first meeting July 14-15, 2017 at the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

"I am very pleased with the outcome of our first meeting held in Amsterdam this summer," said Hidalgo. "We have identified areas in which specific solutions (registration challenges, integration of DPO, communication with IT providers and others) are being analyzed, and we are confident to bring those solutions to the industry this autumn."

When the task force met it set out to address the following:

• Identify the major challenges for the industry to achieve compliance, as well as the stakeholders involved;
• Provide guidelines to enable the industry to assess their specific needs to achieve compliance on time;
• Define the specific features of a Hospitality Data Protection Officer (HDPO) job role, and resulting from this, propose the structure of a HFTP HDPO certification;
• Establish a communication policy to create awareness within the industry.

Hidalgo's post, details how the task force will address each of these areas. Part of the ongoing work for the task force and HFTP will be to continually provide related information to the industry to support compliance preparation. One of the first action items taken was to include a dictionary of terms related to the GDPR on the hospitality-specific site PineappleSearch.com. Referenced from the European Data Protection Supervisor, the glossary will be centralized with a library of hospitality resources.

HFTP will host a HDPO education session at its upcoming Annual Convention on October 25-27, 2017. Wrapping up 2017, HFTP will produce its inaugural HITEC Dubai counterpart event, in partnership with Naseba, from November 14-15 – serving as the third, and final, HITEC of the year. In 2018, HFTP will bring back HITEC Amsterdam on April 11-13 in addition to the larger HITEC Houston on June 18-21. For more information about HITEC and HFTP's other global activities, contact the HFTP Meetings & Special Events Department at [email protected] or visit www.hftp.org and www.hftp.org/hitec/.

For the latest news, follow HFTP/HITEC on HITEC Bytes, PineappleSearch, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@HFTP), Instagram (HFTP_HITEC), Flickr and YouTube. For more information about HITEC Amsterdam, contact the HFTP Meetings & Special Events Department at [email protected], +1 (512) 249-5333.

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