When Tim Berners- Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web declared data to be the “new raw material of the 21st century” back in 2011, he was perfectly describing the direction many economies were heading – from industry to insights and intelligence.

But in recent years, data has broken rank with the orderly way many other commodities adhere to time-honoured economic principles. Unlike other raw materials, the more plentiful data has become the more valuable it has become.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), coming into effect this May, will be the latest legislative move to standardize and safeguard the use of data. GDPR will put in place a clear, single set of rules relating to how data can be used. This will enable end users to have more control over their data.

While it may seem to affect only businesses residing in the EU, this does not mean that businesses in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region will not be affected. With GDPR, organizations will have to make changes within their existing security architecture to meet new requirements. These changes should concern APAC businesses, given close business ties with the EU region. Singapore, for one, is the EU's largest commercial partner in ASEAN, accounting for about one-third of EU-ASEAN trade in goods and services, and roughly two-thirds of investments between the two regions. Adhering to new GDPR guidelines will thus be important for APAC business partnerships with the EU. This will necessitate changes to ensure compliance with new guidelines.

An opportunity, not a chore

The new regulation may feel like a burden to some, but it should be seen as an opportunity to help organizations make the most of their data. We are moving to a world driven by connected devices, the Internet of Things, and new forms of artificial intelligence. Big data is the centre of it all, and in order to succeed with these technologies, businesses will need the public to trust their approaches to managing data.