The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the regulation 2016/679 of the European parliament and of the council, which replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens (and residents) data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy. Commonly known as GDPR, was passed as a regulation on 27th April 2016 — and will be effective from 25th May 2018. GDPR became quite prominent due to the heavy penalties introduced by it for violators — which could be as much as 4% of the annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater)