The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an important legislation for businesses processing European personal data. More than just a checkmark to avoid fines, it is crucial for your organisation in many ways. Many companies benefit from GDPR implementation by gaining customer trust and competitive advantage. Learn how to implement GDPR for your business with this blog.
Pre-implementation planning for GDPR
The fundamental change GDPR has brought in data protection is undeniable. Businesses are now taking significant measures to routinise GDPR practices. If you have decided to implement GDPR for your business, pre-implementation planning is non-negotiable.
Know the law
Businesses taking their initial steps to GDPR implementation must pitch in efforts to understand the key requirements of the law. You can either self-study by referring to blogs, law texts, or official websites or consult a data privacy professional.
Evaluate your current data practices
Review and assess how your organisation deals with personal data. Any data that can identify a natural person such as their name, address, and phone numbers are considered personal data.
Determine if you have adequate knowledge of what data is collected, their sources, means of processing, where they are stored, who has access to these data, how long you store them, and whether the data handling is properly secured.
Identify the gaps where you lack GDPR compliance after reviewing them and take necessary actions.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Are you aware of the GDPR obligations?
- Do you process the personal data of EU citizens?
- What categories of personal data do you process?
- Do you receive special categories of personal data, such as biometric information or racial origin?
- Have you established a process for data subjects to exercise their rights?
- Do you have a risk management plan?
- Do you have a legal basis for processing?
- Does the law require you to appoint a data protection officer (DPO)and do you have one?
- Are you required to conduct data protection impact assessments (DPIAs)?
- Do you practice data minimisation and purpose limitation?
- Have you implemented security measures to prevent data breaches?
Review your GDPR policies
If you are already one of those businesses that provides GDPR policies like a privacy or cookie policy to users, take time and review them. Understand the GDPR requirements for a compliant policy, compare it with yours and make changes if required.
White you are at it, also review your internal data policies and see if anything has changed since the last update and make it on par with your current practices.
Identify the parties involved
Data processing operations may not always be single-handed. When one person makes decisions about what data should be collected, another person might be processing it. For example, many companies use email service providers to carry out their marketing campaigns using the email addresses and names that they collect.
GDPR lays down specific rules for different parties such as a data controller or data processor. Therefore it is important to identify the parties who engage in the processing of personal data.
A data controller determines the purposes of data processing and the means of processing it. They are the key decision-makers. On the other hand, a data processor processes the data on the controller’s behalf.
Consider a property management system that utilizes an online payment platform to create invoices and receive payments from clients. In this scenario, the property management system acts as the data controller, responsible for determining how the collected data will be utilized, while the payment platform serves as the data processor, handling the data on behalf of the controller.
Determine the impact of GDPR implementation
Running a business successfully requires a calculated approach which is why it is beneficial to weigh the impacts of GDPR implementation on your business. While implementing GDPR, you may have to face operational, or financial challenges. For example, investing in new GDPR compliance tools or hiring data privacy experts.
However, the probability of the final result being positive is high due to increased customer trust, competitive advantage, compliance-focused operations, and organised workflow. Dodging heavy fines and reputational damages are added advantages.
7 steps for GDPR implementation
GDPR compliance boosts your business’s credibility and increases opportunities. Think of it as building a sturdy house. A strong foundation is essential. Let us lay the groundwork together.
Perform data mapping
Data mapping provides businesses with an understanding of their data assets. It helps to track what data you collect and its journey within your organisation. The holistic approach also prevents data redundancies. Moreover, it helps security professionals and privacy officers to implement proportional and reasonable safeguards.
Additionally, only collect the data that is necessary for the specific purpose (data minimisation) and limit the use of such data to those purposes (purpose limitation).
Data mapping essentials
- Identify the categories of personal data you collect- Names, phone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses, banking information, etc
- Whether you collect special categories of personal data- Race, religion, sexual orientation, biometric or genetic data, etc
- The sources from which you receive or collect data- Sign-up forms, payment portals, newsletter subscription forms, etc
- The format in which data is handled- XML, CSV, spreadsheets, etc
- Data retention period
- Understand who has access to what data
- Where and how the data is stored
- The flow of data within the organisation
Implement data subject request mechanisms
The GDPR takes data subject rights seriously. All organizations within the European Union and those outside the union that handle the personal data of EU citizens must offer ways for individuals to exercise their privacy rights.
The right to be informed, access, rectification, erasure, data portability, restriction, objection and the rights related to automated decisions and profiling are the 8 data subject rights granted by the EU’s data protection law.
Data subject request management is a continuous process that consists of knowing the rights and honouring them. It is best if you have a proper request mechanism such as an active email address, DSAR forms or a toll-free number. This way you will have a channeled system in place that can keep track of each request and steps taken from your side. However, note that individuals can send requests to exercise their rights directly.
Response time also matters under GDPR. Ideally, you must be prompt in responding to them, taking a maximum of thirty days.
Last but not least, train your employees with guidelines on how to handle the requests.
Provide an updated privacy policy
Privacy policies are front and centre on almost all websites now. This is because transparency about what you do with customer data is a huge deal under GDPR. Straight to the point, if you are processing EU personal data and do not have a privacy notice, you are 6 years behind the schedule. When GDPR was enacted in 2018, this was one of the most significant GDPR requirements.
Your privacy policy must tell the data subjects what data you collect from them, for what purposes you process them, how secure they are, how long you will keep the data, what individuals can do about it, and more.
Privacy policies are supposed to be concise, updated, easily accessible, and free from jargon or technical terms. It is also recommended to be divided into paragraphs and series of layers for a layered format.
Conduct DPIAs
Businesses processing high-risk personal data or using new technologies are required to conduct Data protection assessments. Risky data includes large-scale processing of special categories of personal data, or data used for automated decision-making, and profiling.
Conducting impact assessments will help businesses achieve privacy by design. They help you understand the impact of your data processing activities and how you can resolve any issues that might arise.
GDPR also recommends that organisations consult their data protection officer if they have one.
Examples of situations where DPIA is important
- Use of new technologies
- Large-scale processing of special categories of personal data
- If you monitor/track the behaviours of data subjects
- Process children’s personal data
- Personal data processing leads to physical harm to the data subject
Establish a consent management system
Consent is one of the six legal bases for processing. Therefore obtaining valid consent from data subjects is like a green light for processing personal data.
For consent to be valid under GDPR, it must be informed, freely given, specific and unambiguous. This means an affirmative action must confirm an individual’s agreement to process their personal data. To comply with the consent requirements, you must adopt GDPR-compliant consent forms or cookie banners for websites that are not pre-checked, confusing, or difficult to understand.
You must also keep records of data subjects’ consent preferences to demonstrate compliance.
The principles are also applicable to online data processing activities. Therefore, if your website uses cookies to collect information from visitors, you must obtain user’s consent by providing them with a cookie banner that allows them to give their consent preferences for each non-essential cookie. You can easily achieve this by using consent management platforms like CookieYes.
Privacy-proof your website
Manage GDPR cookie consent with CookieYes
14-day free trialCancel anytime
Ensure third-party compliance
The General Data Protection Regulation sets forth rigorous standards for the handling of data by businesses. This includes the responsibility to ensure that service providers and other third parties involved in data processing adhere to the GDPR’s stipulations.
Businesses must conduct due diligence while selecting their service providers. Check their privacy policies or contact them to understand their privacy practices. Furthermore, have a data processing agreement with your data processors to ensure their GDPR compliance.
Regarding international transfers of personal data to third countries, determine whether they meet the adequacy decision. In the absence of an adequacy decision, you may still share the data under binding corporate rules or standard data protection clauses.
Related resource
Personal data breach monitoring
Implement necessary security measures to protect the confidentiality of personal data and prevent any data breaches. Such safeguards should be proportional to the nature and categories of data you store. For example, enhanced protection for sensitive data. This also means risk assessments, security policies, and technical and organisational measures.
Use encryption, two-factor authentications, role-based access controls, and other cybersecurity measures to protect the confidentiality and integrity of personal data.
If a data breach occurs, notify the affected parties and the authorities within 72 hours.
Monitoring and maintaining compliance
GDPR implementation is a process rather than a project and requires continuous monitoring. Some of the steps to maintain GDPR compliance are the following:
Stay updated
Privacy laws are ever-evolving and therefore require businesses to stay updated with any changes. For this, you can subscribe to privacy newsletters, or follow the data protection resources shared by supervisory authorities. Consulting a legal expert in personal data protection is also a way to stay informed.
Conduct assessments
Assess your compliance strategies periodically to find out any gaps in the GDPR compliance strategies. Here are some of the questions that you can use to introspect your data policies:
- Are the current security safeguards enough to protect the sensitive data stored by your organisation?
- Do the DPIAs cover all risky data?
- Does your organisation meet the GDPR consent requirements?
- Do you map all categories of personal data that you collect?
- Are all service providers and third parties compliant with the GDPR requirements?
- Can individuals understand your privacy policy easily?
- Have your privacy policy and cookie policy been updated?
Connect with community
Engage with other organisations bound by GDPR to stay updated with the latest trends in data protection. This includes useful saas solutions, privacy consultants, and changes in law. Try attending conferences or summits where you can get insights from organisations similar to yours.
Appoint a DPO
Though organisations with less than 250 employees are not legally required to appoint a data protection officer (DPO), it is great to have one. A DPO will assist you in GDPR implementation as well as monitoring your compliance and identifying any gaps.
FAQ on GDPR implementation
GDPR is the data protection law that lays down guidelines for processing EU citizens’ personal data. The law applies to organisations based in any of the European member states or the European Economic Area (EEA) and those outside Europe if they process European personal data. GDPR is enforced by the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs).
Businesses implementing GDPR must establish security measures to protect the data, conduct data audits, provide data subject request mechanisms, display privacy notices/policies, conduct impact assessments and more.
The following are the 10 key GDPR compliance requirements:
– Minimise data collection to what is necessary
– Limit the processing of personal data to the specific purpose of collection
– Have a legal basis for processing
– Fortify the cybersecurity measures
– Provide an easy-to-understand and clear privacy policy
– Conduct impact assessments wherever necessary
– Provide a cookie banner and obtain explicit consent for non-essential cookies
– Establish a streamlined mechanism for data subjects to exercise their rights
– Have a contractual relationship with service providers
– Appoint a DPO
The law lays down a two-tiered structure for GDPR non-compliance. It ranges up to 10 million Euros or 2% of the annual turnover for less severe breaches and 4% or 20 million Euros for severe ones.
Safna Y Yacoob is a lawyer turned data privacy writer. At CookieYes, she transforms complex privacy regulations into actionable insights for businesses. On off-hours, find her brightening days with one-liners, spinning playlists, or watching feel-good movies.
