General Data Protection Regulation is a highly influential data privacy regulation worldwide. It has extraterritorial implications for businesses worldwide that process the personal data of EU residents. Startups are enthusiastic about scaling while maintaining trust and reputation rapidly. Therefore, GDPR compliance offers them security and avoids penalties due to data breaches. In addition, applying compliance creates a culture of privacy and safe practices. Compliance brings strategic transformation and enhances customer retention. For these reasons, startups must apply GDPR to improve customer confidence and loyalty. Consequently, GDPR compliance for startups offers a competitive edge and forward-thinking capabilities to sustain in the global market.

In this blog, we discuss the complicated GDPR process in simple steps and guide you through the best data protection practices for startups. A thorough reading helps you to understand the procedure accurately.

WHAT IS THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)?

The GDPR is an audacious product of the European Union (EU) as a reform of data protection regulation. The strict data protection rule came into effect on May 25, 2018. The primary objective of the rule is to protect the rights of individuals. In addition, compliance offers consideration of human rights to make it more relevant in the digital era. Consequently, GDPR compliance ensures that organizations respect customers’ private data and lives. The regulations allow customers to control over their information. Customer consent and priority are the prime concern of the rules.

WHY SHOULD STARTUPS CARE ABOUT THE GDPR?

GDPR for startups signifies that your organization is committed to upholding the data protection standard. Therefore, compliant with strict data protection rules from the beginning offers multiple benefits to startups:

Develop Trust: Complying with privacy regulations helps establish trust in your brand. The process ensures that customers’ data is protected from cyber threats, improving reputation, customer retention, and revenue generation.

Saves Time and Effort: Applying compliance at the initial stage can standardize privacy practices and data collection processes. Organizations can create transparent data management and handling in their initial days, reducing the burden and effort in data privacy in later stages.

Provide Opportunities: GDPR compliance offers you a better position in front of investors. Thus, it can open up new doors for your business, and investors can feel safe investing in your startup.

Improve Revenue: GDPR for startups enables business opportunities that influence overall revenue generation. You can gain advantages in the market that help you retain more customers for your business.

8 SIMPLE STEPS TO ENSURE GDPR COMPLIANT FOR STARTUPS

GDPR compliance requirement is a complicated process. Startups can follow the  8 steps for complete GDPR:

1. Assess Your Data: Startups need to understand the flow of personal data in their internal systems to manage them. If you are unaware of the data categories of your organization, then you might face difficulties managing them. Thus, you can perform data mapping to categorize the personal data that your organization collects and process. It includes the website, marketing tools, and software data that need categorization. In this regard, a data inventory can help your compliance process. The process enables you to identify the kinds of data you process, the location of the data, accountability, and accessibility. It clears your perspective about the data your organization collects and works with.

2. Appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO): GDPR compliance requires the appointment of a Data Protection Officer (DPO) to oversee the data protection strategy. The officer will follow the instructions set by the processors. Appointing a DPO is essential if you collect a large amount of data and requires a systematic monitoring process. In addition, a DPO should be appointed if data processing is centralized and the company is located outside the EU. DPO will provide the best GDPR practices and monitor the data handling process. Further, DPOs clearly understand the potential risks associated with different operation processes. Thus, DPOs must have sufficient knowledge to conduct the compliance process effectively.

3. Evaluate Legal Basis: After that, you must identify the lawful basis for processing the personal data you collect and store. Thus, update your privacy policy to ensure compliance. GDPR mandates the right to be informed policy for the users. Therefore, your startup business needs to include this policy in practice. In addition, your organization must implement a consent policy that allows you to use customer data for specific purposes. Data processing is essential to protect the customer’s details and comply with the law. In this respect, your priority will be determining which lawful basis is appropriate for your business. Hence, compact policies and protocols help in the compliance process.

4. Create a Cookie Pop-Up: As per GDPR, cookies are considered personal data as they store data that can be used to identify individuals. Thus, you must get user consent before using the cooking except for the necessary cookies. Therefore, a standard practice must have a cookie banner or a pop-up when users visit your websites. You can collect their data based on their consent. It is only possible when you provide accurate information about the data each cookie tracks. GDPR compliance mandates that cookie consent notices be made with simple language for users to understand. The main aim is to ensure that the cookies follow the GDPR data collection rules.

5. Educate Employees: Ensure all your employees know about GDPR compliance requirements, possible cybersecurity threats, personal data privacy, and what could happen if they fail to follow them. This will lower the chances of data misuse, data breaches, and GDPR violations. In addition, you can ensure your employees know how to properly handle data by giving them regular training. As new hacking risks appear, keep training materials up to date. Additionally, you must show your employees practical examples of cybersecurity breaches and discuss different ways to handle incidents. Allow your employees to know the proper cybersecurity steps required for GDPR.

6. Prevent Data Breaches: Protect your data by restricting sharing, encrypting, or minimizing data holds. This reduces the risks of data breaches in your secure systems. The GDPR recommends using either anonymization or pseudonymization to prevent the breaches. In addition, you should eliminate unnecessary data from the database to minimize the amount of stored data. Again, regular vulnerability scanning on systems and devices helps you identify potential gaps in the process. Internal guidance for data breach reporting is also essential for GDPR compliance. Notifying the customers about the incident is crucial.

7. Establish Privacy by Design: Startups need to pay extra attention to privacy because it works best when done early in a business. The GDPR says companies must prioritize data safety when creating business processes and applications. Therefore, a data protection impact assessment should be applied to manage high-risk situations. In addition, unnecessary data should be regularly eliminated, and anonymization or pseudonymization should be used to protect the data. Most importantly, choose the data centers in secure locations and use encrypted passwords to strengthen the data security. For startups, employee’s devices must be checked periodically to find potential threats.

8. Document and Monitor Compliance: Your startup will grow with time, and the amount of data it handles will also increase. Thus, it is essential to ensure all the data security measures are correctly placed to maintain compliance. In addition, GDPR compliance ensures that all the user’s data are safe from theft and unauthorized access. As a startup, you can apply data encryption and access control to restrict data access. Also, data minimization reduces the risk of data breaches, and consent management will offer customers more power over their data. Again, the regular monitoring and audit process is essential for preventing potential threats in your organization. All the compliance processes require periodic auditing to identify gaps in the process.

The above-stated steps are generic and can be changed or modified according to the organization’s needs. If you need tailored services, visit CertPro.com; our executive will help.

GET GDPR COMPLIANCE SUPPORT FROM CERTPRO

GDPR compliance for startups is a complex process to achieve. However, achieving GDPR requires many resources to help you in this process. Therefore, startups can take help and guidance from professionals who make their journey simple and easy. You can get support from CertPro, as we have been in this field for years. Our data protection guidelines and checklist will help you meet the GDPR requirements. Collaborate with CertPro and improve your overall data processing measures. Our comprehensive risk assessment and tailored services will help you to implement a robust data security framework for your organization. We assist our clients in implementing the controls and maintaining compliance. Thus, secure your compliance journey with CertPro and start growing.

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