The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the world's strictest privacy and security rule, is only fully complied with by a few firms.
Complacency is dangerous ground. Entities that do not comply risk fines of up to 18 million or 4% of annual global turnover (whichever is greater).
This article will teach you all you need to know about GDPR compliance and what it means for your business.
Image alt text : GDPR and Privacy
What Is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?
The European Union's bold data protection reform gave rise to the GDPR. In 2018, stringent privacy regulations went into effect. The objective of this cybersecurity framework is to safeguard the personal information of every EU citizen.
The European Convention on Human Rights, which was first adopted in 1950, is updated by the GDPR to reflect modern technology. Everyone has the right to respect one's private family life, according to Article 8 of the treaty.
In the analog age that gave rise to the convention, the lines separating private life from public life were distinct and conspicuous. These days, they are hazy and unclear. Customers may never be certain that their private data, and consequently their private lives, are being respected in the absence of a defined and enforced standard like the GDPR.
Why Does It Exist?
The short answer to that question is public concern over privacy. In general, Europe has long had stricter regulations governing how businesses may utilize the personal information of its residents. The EU's Data Protection Directive, which became operative in 1995, is replaced by the GDPR.
This was long before the internet evolved into the modern-day center for online commerce. The directive is, therefore, out of date and does not address many of the ways that data is stored, gathered, and moved today.
Types Of Data GDPR Protects
The types of data protected with the GDPR are as follows:
- Basic identity information such as name, address, and ID numbers
- Web data such as location, IP address, cookie data, and RFID tags
- Health and genetic data
- Biometric data
- Racial or ethnic data
- Political opinions
- Sexual orientation
What Does GDPR Compliance Mean?
Fundamentally, GDPR compliance refers to a company's ability to handle personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation's (GDPR) established standards.
The GDPR establishes certain requirements that businesses must adhere to that restrict how personal data may be handled. Additionally, it outlines eight rights for data subjects that offer some protections for people's private information. Giving people more control over their personal information and how it is used in the long run.
What Companies Are Affected By GDPR?
Any business, including those that are not based in the EU, that provides products and services to residents of the EU is affected by the GDPR. You can never be sure whether customers you deal with online are situated in the EU if you run an online business. Because of this, all online firms ought to be, at the absolute least, GDPR compliant.
Personal data is funneled into two categories – those that control the data and those that process the data.
Data Controllers
A controller is any person, public authority, organization, or other body that chooses the reasons for and methods for processing personal data, according to the GDPR. The processing of personal data is decided by controllers.
For instance, an afterschool learning center employs a digital screen to let parents know when each teacher is available in the waiting area. Each child's name and the room number where they are taking lessons are displayed on the screen.
Since the learning center determines how the notification system will handle all of the data, it is referred to as the "controller" of personal data.
Data Processors
The GDPR defines any individual, public authority, agency, or another body that processes personal data on behalf of a controller. Because processors are carrying out the data processing rules set by a controller, they're not making decisions about how personal data is handled.
How Does It Affect Customers And Third-Party Contracts?
The GDPR holds both data processors and data controllers (the entity that possesses the data) equally liable (outside organizations that help manage that data). If a third-party processor is not compliant, then your company is also not compliant. The chain as a whole must be able to abide by the new regulation's stringent reporting requirements. Customers must also be informed of their rights under the GDPR by organizations.
This means that obligations must be clearly stated in all current contracts with processors (such as cloud providers, SaaS vendors, or payroll service providers) and clients. Additionally, the updated contracts must specify standardized data management procedures, protection, and breach reporting procedures.
How To Know If My Company Is Affected By GDPR
If you have a web presence, and market your company’s products over the web, the likelihood is that you are affected. The new regulation impacts any company worldwide that processes transmits or stores data of people living in the EU. And despite what you may have read, companies with fewer than 250 employees still need to comply, though they may be exempt from some of the documentation requirements.
Are you collecting personal information such as email, phone number, IP on individuals based in the EU? Or an example, do you have a newsletter subscription box on your site? As this is open to everyone, an individual residing within the EU has probably registered.
If your answer is yes, the GDPR affects you.
Who In My Company Is Responsible For Compliance?
The data controller, the data processor, and the data protection officer are among the roles that the GDPR specifies as being in charge of ensuring compliance (DPO). The person who controls how and why personal data is processed is the data controller. The controller must also ensure that external contractors follow the rules.
The internal teams responsible for maintaining and processing personal data records are considered data processors, as are any outsourced companies that handle all or some of these tasks. Under the GDPR, processors are responsible for violations or non-compliance. Therefore, even if the processing partner is solely at fault, it's likely that your business and that of the processing partner, such as a cloud provider, will both be responsible for paying fines.
According to the GDPR, both the controller and the processor must appoint a DPO to manage their data protection plans and GDPR compliance. Companies must have a DPO if they handle or store a lot of personal information about EU citizens, handle or store unique personal information, routinely monitor data subjects, or are a public body. Law enforcement is one example of a public entity that can be excluded from the DPO requirement.
How To Be GDPR Compliant
The following will help you become GDPR compliant.
Know The Data You Are Collecting
You can't control personal data if you don't understand how it moves via your internal systems. Here is a straightforward seven-category framework for mapping all data sources, along with an illustration of how to obtain an ebook:
Source
- Ebook Download form
Data gathered
- Full name
- Email Address
- Business name
Purpose of collecting data
- generation of sales leads
How is the processed data used?
- In the Mailchimp database.
- Internal email marketers can access this.
When is the data deleted?
- Every 30 days, Mailchimp manually removes all unsubscribed leads.
Do you have permission to gather this information?
- Yes, there was a message stating that all entries would be added to the email list on the ebook download form.
Appoint A Data Protection Officer (DPO)
Both controllers and processes must appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) to manage the data protection plan, according to Article 37 of the GDPR. Be aware that even while processes only obey the data handling directives provided by processors, they are nevertheless expected to have a data protection policy.
A DPO must be appointed by a company in accordance with the GDPR if any of the following situations arise:
- In the event that a public authority processes data,
- If the data is monitored systematically after the collection
- If massive amounts of data are processed
Unfortunately, the GDPR doesn't specify what "big scale" means in terms of size. Due to this ambiguity, a lot of businesses choose to hire DPOs just to be safe.
Even if it's based outside of the EU, organizations should appoint DPOs where their data processing operations are centralized. A DPO should be stationed in the member state where the company's headquarters are if the organization is based in the EU.
The DPO should ideally be bilingual with the state's GDPR regulators. This will assist businesses in comprehending the subtleties of that state's GDPR and subsequently complying with it.
According to Article 39 of the GDPR, a DPO must be able to perform the following tasks:
- firmly recommending best GDPR compliance procedures to both controllers and processes
- Data handling is being watched to guarantee GDPR compliance.
- Serve as the principal point of contact for any questions about data processing by giving precise guidance on data protection impact assessments.
Evaluate Data Collection Requirements
You should only collect data that you absolutely need if you want to be GDPR compliant. The supervisory authority checking on your compliance will be alarmed if you amass sensitive data without a good justification.
A privacy impact assessment (IPIA) and a data protection impact assessment should be performed on all data requirements (DPIA). When the data collected is extremely sensitive, these impact analyses are required.
The definition of "sensitivity" can occasionally be arbitrary. Here are some situations that, in order to avoid confusion, would necessitate the completion of a DPIA.
- When your organization is utilizing new technology
- If you're processing personal data such as:
- Religious views
- Ethnic origins and identities
- Political opinions
- Memberships
- Genetic data
- Biometric data
- Philosophical beliefs
- Health records
- Sexual orientations
- If you're tracking the location of individuals
- If you're tracking the behavior of individuals
- If your data is associated with children
- If you're using data for automated decisions that could have legal consequences
- If you're monitoring publicly accessible areas
Report Data Breaches Immediately
The GDPR law requires immediate notification of data breaches. Both controllers and processors must notify data breaches within 72 hours, under article 33 of the GDPR.
The following describes the hierarchical reporting structure:
Data breaches must be reported by processors to controllers, who must then report them to a supervisory body.
Monitoring and enforcing GDPR compliance is the responsibility of a supervisory authority, often known as a Data Protection Association or DPA. Additionally, they serve as an organization's main point of contact for all GDPR questions.
Typically, supervisory authorities are placed in the EU state where a firm is headquartered. The GDPR gives DPAs the authority to punish controllers and processors for non-compliance.
IBe Honest About Data Collection Motive
All the information you are gathering about your consumers ought to be disclosed to them. Secret data gathering will only result in a large non-compliance consequence.
Before any data is gathered, each data collection site must prominently show a data collection acknowledgment.
The following are some typical web pages where data collection notices are displayed:
Website Forms
Website forms should clarify how any information collected will be utilized. Your messaging should be straightforward and concise; avoid using jargon or convoluted language.
Consent boxes with pre-checked boxes are not allowed. People must constantly be aware that they are giving their consent to data gathering.
Cookie Collection Notices
Users-identifying cookies are considered personal data collectors under the GDPR, and as a result, they must be subject to regulation. If an organization complies with the following GDPR standards, it may continue to use cookie data:
- Users must give clear consent to the use of cookies BEFORE any are used.
- Organizations must clearly specify how cookie data will be used.
- All user consent must be documented and stored.
- Website access should not be impeded if cookie use consent is not provided.
- Users should have the ability to seamlessly withdraw cookie use consent.
Keep Your Privacy Policy Updated
Your website must make your Privacy Policy easily accessible and continually current. All of your clients must receive an email alerting them to any changes whenever one is made.
All of the information that is gathered and how it will be used should be specified in a privacy policy. To design an accurate data privacy policy that complies with GDPR, legal counsel is advised.
Assess All Third-Party Risks Regularly
The GDPR demands that businesses regularly monitor all security risks and put corrective measures in place for each one.
Organizations should deploy a security score and risk assessment system, ideally GDPR-specific risk assessments, to successfully meet these standards.
Each vendor's security risk is represented by VendorRisk by UpGuard with a security score. This gives businesses the ability to quickly find and fix all of each vendor's security flaws.
To guarantee that all third parties continue to be compliant, VendorRisk also offers a vast library of risk evaluations, including a GDPR standard security questionnaire.
Creating A GDPR Diary
The Data Register, also known as a GDPR diary, is a thorough record of how a company is carrying out GDPR compliance. The creation of this would require the identification of all of your data sources (point 1 in this list).
The more information that can be included in the GDPR diary to track the data flow across your firm, the better. The GDPR logbook will show compliance in the event of an audit.
The GDPR diary can be used as evidence of advancements in data security if your firm has a data breach while putting in place a compliance strategy.
Organizations can find and fix any vendor network vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach using a third-party attack surface monitoring tool.
Implementing GDPR Compliance Training
A data protection officer is required by the GDPR to oversee an organization's adherence to the regulation, which includes increasing employee knowledge and training. Organizations should offer initial and ongoing training to their workers. Additionally, a system for maintaining training records that may be used to demonstrate compliance should be in place.
Why Engage In GDPR Compliance
We’ve listed below the top reasons to ensure that you are GDPR compliant including:
A More Effective Marketing Strategy
Consider the GDPR as the necessary stepping stone your company needs to climb the corporate ladder rather than as a burden. Marketing has altered to guarantee that all data is correct, structured, and current under the new GDPR standards. This implies that a data audit should have been conducted by all businesses. Commercially, this benefits your company because you spend less time and money on interactions with clients who aren't likely to respond to your advertising.
More Accurate, Secure, and Organised Data
Although sorting through mountains of data may not sound attractive, this is one of the key requirements you must meet. It should not be considered a tedious chore to organize your office files, update customer profiles, and implement safer data measurement techniques. The GDPR is a wonderful motivator to complete these tasks and improve your business management system, making it more secure and effective.
Better Customer Relationships
By demonstrating to your clients that you are completely GDPR compliant, you foster the trust needed to forge a strong working relationship. In addition, customers will be more informed of how their data is used once the GDPR is in effect, eliminating any potential misunderstanding. Customer loyalty is of utmost importance, particularly for companies like the maintenance trade that must interact with customers frequently.
Enhanced Business Reputation
Reliability is the most sought-after trait in a tradesman, and you must be able to prove it to stand out from the crowd. The GDPR is the ideal instrument for demonstrating your professionalism to both current and new clients. Clients and staff feel secure knowing they have more control over their personal data and that your company is reputable when your organization complies with the GDPR.
Conclusion
Complying with the GDPR requires organizations to spend much time and effort strengthening their data protection measures — not to mention reviewing their entire workflow to make sure personal data is collected, stored, and processed securely and that all employees follow security policies. You should reach out to agencies or speak to professionals who would ensure you’re in compliance.
