The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to roll out later this month, bringing with it a range of changes to the way that personal information can be used and stored by businesses.

Researchers at Veritas questioned people from across the continent to find out how they are going to take advantage of the greater privacy protection that this regulatory shift affords them. Amongst the respondents from the UK, 40 per cent said that they are gearing up to call on companies to provide details of what personal data is stored before the end of the year.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study revealed that consumers are more inclined to exercise their privacy rights in the wake of a successful hack against an organisation, according to Econsultancy.

Almost a third of those questioned said that they were eager to see just how well the businesses they regularly give their custom to are equipped to take consumer rights into account in the face of the GDPR’s arrival.

This will be especially relevant for retailers that offer safe shopping online, since a lot of sensitive information relating to consumers is stored across popular sites, making them a major target for attacks.

Less than a tenth of those questioned said that they would be leveraging the GDPR simply to toy with businesses that have caused them problems in the past. So while there may be some ill-tempered use of this regulation, on the whole it will be put to good use in the UK and elsewhere.

Retailers are regularly being told to improve security and ensure that safe shopping online is available to all customers. With these tougher rules, consumers should be better protected than ever before, even if completely eliminating the likelihood of a breach is out of the question.