More and more data is collected from each of us every day. This volume and prevalence of data, its complexity, and its value combine to make us expect more protection and privacy in an ever-connected world. An important new regulation, designed to protect the privacy of people in the European Union, was enforced May 25, 2018.

Fundamentally, the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to empower individuals by giving them more control over their personal data—defined as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person—and to establish a single set of data protection rules across the EU. But it doesn’t just apply to EU organizations; it applies to all organizations, anywhere in the world, that target, collect, or use the personal data of any EU resident. To comply with the GDPR, McAfee and other companies must “implement appropriate technical and organizational” measures to protect personal data.