What do I need to be GDPR compliant?
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has extensive privacy and security requirements for handling personal data of EU residents. Fines for noncompliance can be high. Any business that markets to or monitors the behavior of EU residents must work towards GDPR alignment. Here are the key things your business needs to do:
1. Document what personal data you collect, process, store and where it is stored. Review your data retention policies and classify all EU consumer data.
2. Update Privacy Policies - Revise external and internal data privacy policies to meet GDPR transparency standards around processing purposes, legal basis, data sharing and retention timelines.
3. Enable Data Subject Rights - Put processes in place to ensure EU residents can easily exercise GDPR rights like access, rectification, erasure and data portability.
4. Conduct Impact Assessments - For high-risk data processing activities, perform Data Protection Impact Assessments to meet GDPR accountability expectations.
5. Ensure Lawful Data Collection & Use - Confirm valid legal basis for gathering, analyzing or moving EU user data like explicit consent or contractual necessity.
6. Implement Data Protection by Design - Adopt embedded privacy measures like pseudonymization, encryption and role-based access into product design and lifecycle.
7. Tighten Vendor Management - Review agreements and audit vendors that access EU data to enforce GDPR compliant handling by all data processors.
8. Report Breaches - Prepare an incident response plan and notify EU authorities of any personal data breach within 72 hours of awareness.
9. Assign a DPO - Designate a Data Protection Officer to oversee privacy strategy and GDPR conformance if required.
Achieving full GDPR alignment requires an ongoing commitment of resources and cross-functional coordination. Outside expertise can help develop a tailored roadmap. Start preparing your action plan for GDPR today.
