The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union law that regulates the handling of personal data by organizations. It applies to all communications from companies to their customers and prospects, including marketing and transactional notifications. Companies must comply with GDPR standards when collecting user information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, even if only some users are based in the EU. The penalties for noncompliance can be steep, reaching 4% of a company's global revenue. To avoid noncompliance, companies need to ask for granular consent from their users, provide clear privacy policies, and store data securely. This includes implementing best practices such as password control, firewalls, and data encryption, as well as maintaining audit logs of all data access and changes to customer preferences. Companies must also be transparent about customer notifications in their privacy policy and provide customers with options to opt out of certain channels or notification types.