Introduction
The adoption of the GDPR has significantly affected the way business is conducted in the highly developed digital environment, where customer management is one of the most important functions. Whether a company provides mobile apps, software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure, on-premises technology, or simply software, it must comply with the regulations to protect client data, reputation, and the data clients work with.
The GDPR policy affects all kinds of enterprises and organisations that do business with clients irrespective of their quantity, geographical location, and data management systems. The GDPR imposes critical requirements on tech companies as well as those involved in personal data processing and collection. The regulation ensures that tech companies monitor the type of personal data they collect from their users and the way they use it. In 2021, many major tech companies had to pay high fines due to non-compliance with the GDPR rules. Therefore, there is a demand for systems that can mitigate such kinds of risks and guide companies on the rules and standards that they should follow to be GDPR compliant.
GDPR compliance for tech companies means not only accurate client data processing but also data protection.
Reporting a breach
Under Article 33 of the GDPR, in case of a personal data breach, the company in the person of an authorised controller shall, without undue delay and not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it, notify the supervisory authority of the personal data breach, unless it is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals.
Data protection impact assessment (DPIA)
DPIAs are required if data processing activities of an organisation could pose a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals.
Transparency policy
Organisations must have a privacy policy that transparently explains how they collect and use customer personal data.
Data portability
The right to data portability allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services. Under this rule, customers may easily copy or transfer personal data from one IT environment to another, meaning that tech companies must regularly update the information on data availability, location, and scope.
Personal data processing
Organisations should be able to identify all personal data storage locations of company staff, clients, vendors, and partners, which may require tracking each record that involves data from different sources such as business correspondence and analysing CRM, customer support, and marketing systems, including cloud services.
Why is it Important?
The effect of the GDPR on tech companies should be taken seriously by every organisation to review and document data handling and collecting procedures. The regulation is constantly extending the rights of individuals to data privacy.
The industry involves many activities that require sharing of customer personal data. For example, when customers shop online, they expect their data to be handled accurately and with a high level of security. In their turn, companies that collect data from customers process and use this information for a certain period of time. In accordance with the GDPR, companies do not own this data and can hold it temporarily.
Customers may request the information they provided at any time. They also have the right to check if the data they provided is not damaged and may forbid sharing it with third parties, including partners of a company. Customers may also ask companies to destroy the information as data subjects that have complete rights to personal information.
Customer’s consent
Biometrics as identifiers for financial transactions
Right to be forgotten
Communicating a security breach
Supplier management
Pseudonymisation
Sanctions
Client Specific Needs?
Unification of information database
As the company employs many independent contractors that use their own equipment, software, and methods, there is a challenge of centralising and rationalising a common approach to data processing and assigning information governance accountabilities across the organisation.
DPIA readiness
Many services offered by the company involve the development of cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. As a result, most data processing is at high risk in terms of the data protection legislation and therefore requires Data Protection Impact Assessments to be carried out regularly.
Effectiveness of data processing
As a technology company that uses customer data for the analysis of technologies, methodologies, and efficiency of features, the organisation needs to have a clear tracking of all the stored data and to be able to react instantly in case of any changes.
