The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union law regulating how organizations can process and transfer personal data. It aims to protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of those natural persons to whom the personal data pertains to; and applies to anyone offering goods or services to EU residents—even if they’re not based in Europe.
Assessments are a key requirement as a means of demonstrating compliance towards the regulation. They help organizations identify and minimize risks associated with processing personal data. In this blog, we’ll explore the important role that assessments play in supporting compliance with GDPR.
Understanding GDPR Assessments
GDPR compliance requires organizations to conduct several types of assessments to ensure the secure handling of personal data. Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) are required before processing data that could pose a risk to individuals’ rights and freedoms. They include a description of the processing, an assessment of necessity, and measures to address risks, proportionality of dataset under processing, having documented legal basis, etc.
Organizations may also undertake risk assessments in order to identify, evaluate, and mitigate risks to personal data. Within GDPR, these are important for determining the appropriate security measures and compliance obligations, and they can help prevent data breaches. Privacy impact assessments (PIAs) offer another means to assess risk before starting data processing.
It’s important to conduct regular assessments in order to remain in compliance with GDPR requirements.
Preparing for a GDPR Assessment
A number of preparatory steps are necessary to prepare for an effective assessment.
You’ll start by assembling the team. This will likely include people from compliance, as well as IT leaders and the business-line managers who will interface most directly with the consumer data you’re protecting.
From there, you’ll want to review existing data protection policies and procedures, identifying the scope and objectives of the assessment. All these initial steps will help ensure an effective and accurate assessment.
Conducting the Data Inventory
It’s important to create a data inventory, or data map, at the outset of the assessment. This detailed catalog of an organization’s data assets is essential for complying with GDPR: It helps the business demonstrate that it understands its data and can protect it accordingly.
A data inventory can provide insights into how data is stored, accessed, and used. This, in turn, can help you to understand your data landscape, improve data governance, and determine where possible gaps may exist in areas like data storage and data access.
Assessing Data Protection Measures
As part of the assessment, a business should evaluate its current data protection measures against GDPR requirements.
Key areas to focus on include data collection and processing practices, as well as consent mechanisms. The assessment also will look at data storage and security measures, and data subject rights—areas such as access, rectification, and erasure.
Identifying and Addressing Gaps
The data protection measures assessment will help the business to spot and close potential gaps in how personal data is handled. To reap the benefit, the organization will analyze the results of the assessment, looking specifically for compliance gaps.
From there, you’ll prioritize areas in need of improvement and develop a remediation plan to address the identified issues.
Documenting and Reporting the Assessment
Under GDPR, documentation plays an important role. In fact, the regulation mandates specific kinds of documentation. This includes a personal data protection policy and privacy notices for both the public and employees. Businesses also need to document their data retention policy and schedule and various consent forms.
The final assessment report will include all the findings, including the identified gaps. It will document remediation actions and timelines, and should be reported out to relevant stakeholders and regulatory authorities if necessary.
Implementing and Monitoring Remediation Efforts
To implement and monitor the remediation plan, a business will likely review its data subject rights, with the aim of making it easy for people to request and exercise those rights. It’s important to have a consent model in place that uses a dynamic consent mechanism to meet privacy requirements.
Remediation may include the involvement of a data protection officer, someone tasked with maintaining compliance and reinforcing security. Overall, the remediation will ensure that the organization has effectively addressed any risks and liabilities under GDPR.
To ensure success going forward, it’s important to establish a monitoring system in support of ongoing compliance and to have in place a regular review and update of data protection policies and practices, as these may need to evolve over time as new use cases emerge.
The GDPR sets a high bar for data privacy. An effective assessment can help an organization to ensure it is meeting all its obligations, both in order to comply with the regulation, and to protect the privacy of its customers and other key stakeholders. Ready to move ahead with GDPR assessments? Contact the experts.
