Company: BCS
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000312069-25-000114
Chunk: 389

Company: BARCLAYS PLC
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form: 20-F
Chunk 389
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 employees and prospective employees. This data may also be held and processed for the Group by third-party vendors, partners, or suppliers which therefore exposes the Group to risks from vulnerabilities and non-compliance in its supply chain. The international nature of both the Group’s business and its IT infrastructure also means that data and personal information may be available in countries other than those from where the information originated. Accordingly, the Group must ensure that its collection, use, transfer and storage of data, including personal information, complies with all applicable laws and regulations in all relevant jurisdictions, which could: (i) increase the Group’s compliance and operating costs; (ii) impact the development of new products or services or the offering of existing products or services; (iii) affect how products and services are offered to clients and customers; (iv) demand significant oversight by the Group’s management; and (v) require the Group to review some elements of the structure of its businesses, operations and systems in less efficient ways. Data, including personal information, is subject to external as well as internal (whether intentional or accidental) security risks. Concerns regarding the effectiveness of the Group’s measures to safeguard data, including personal information, or even the perception that those measures are inadequate, could expose the Group to the risk of loss or unavailability of data or data integrity issues and/or cause the Group to lose existing or potential clients and customers, and thereby reduce the Group’s revenues. Furthermore, any failure or perceived failure by the Group to comply with applicable privacy or data protection laws and regulations may subject it to potential contractual liability, claims, litigation, regulatory or other government action (including significant regulatory fines) and require changes to certain operations or practices which could also inhibit the Group’s development or marketing of certain products or services or increase the costs of offering them to customers. Any of these events could damage the Group’s reputation, subject the Group to material fines or other monetary penalties, make the Group liable for the payment of compensatory damages, divert management's time and attention, lead to enhanced regulatory oversight and otherwise materially adversely affect its business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. In addition, increased adoption of AI technologies, which rely on the collection of large amounts of data, including personal information, and use of such data for training purposes, has led legislators in numerous jurisdictions to propose and adopt new laws addressing AI-related usage of personal information and data protection authorities around the world to adopt new and evolving interpretations of existing data protection laws in light of such technology, in both cases, imposing