The Ultimate GDPR Compliance Testing Checklist

GDPR Compliance Testing

There has been a lot of debate about GDPR and its consequences for the way businesses comply with GDPR to do their business. The latest EU legislative structure, which came into force on 25 May 2018, is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation contributes to being the latest buzz in the town. It is applicable to business organizations in Europe, regardless of their base in EU.

This regulation will provide the control to the users over the data, its source, the consent for exporting, and requesting the access.

GDPR focuses on the security, processing and management of individuals’ personal data and grants the regulatory authorities the power to take action against undertakings in violation of this new legislation. It empowers people by expanding control over the use of their personal data and imposes strict controls on the processing companies.

Check whether the regulation is applicable for your business

Your organization will be subjected to the GDPR compliance in case it fulfils any of the below-mentioned conditions:

• In case, your company performs the monitoring of the online behaviour of the data subjects that are present in EU.
• In case you are in the business of processing personal data which offering services and goods to the customers, located in EU.
• If you are a personal data processor that offers services on the behalf of the data processor or data controller, situated in EU.

According to the regulations, the business needs to be compliant. Preparations can be full of hassles. The following checklist will be beneficial for getting the business compliant:

1. Getting an assessment for security risk

Conduction of thorough vulnerability assessment of security risk is helpful in determining the vulnerabilities that is present in the environment.

It is also helpful in determining whether you have legal compliance with the complicated regulations, as mentioned in NIST, HIPAA, and a wide array of other companies.

A good SRA will be following the standard frame look like ISO 27001, that is governed by the ISACA.

2. Conduction of inventory of the data

You should be identifying the assets as well as their value to the company. Here data refers to the PII or personally identifiable information, medical and patient details, social security numbers and credit card numbers.

You need to find out where the high-risk data subjects are present in the environment.

The ultimate idea is the implementation of higher transparency in the environment.

3. Getting enrolled for the privacy shield

As you enroll for the privacy shield, you provide an added coverage to the business organization for the GDPR compliance.

It is not completely covered and is applicable to the organizations that submit the data to the US from EU.

4. Updating of the privacy policies

You should be consulting the general counsel or the legal team of your business in order to evaluate the already existing privacy policies.

As you make a thorough evaluation, you will be able to find the missing points in the policy.

The policy should be clearly stating the aspects of processing as well as using the data. You will be having the record of modifying and the points that have been added and communicate the same to the clients.

5. The incident response Team

This team is composed of senior or upper level management personnel that will be determining how the business will provide a response as well as handle any sort of incidents that is going to occur.

For instance, in case an employee in the company try accessing PII without having the required authorization, guidelines should be there where it is necessary to notify the client and ensure that this never going to happen again.

The Data processing officer should be an integral part of this incident response team and will be helpful in the development of incident response policies.

The work is not done here. It is a great option to test the policy annually.

6. Appointing the DPO

The DPO should manage the compliance testing process of GDPR.

This individual will work closely with the legal team to update the privacy policies that will be present in the privacy shield.

This person will inform the employees, working in your company about the benefits of GDPR.

Apart from handling incidents, this person is going to take an active approach to ensure the GDPR compliance of your organization.

7. Educating the employees

You should be talking to the employees about the GDPR. You should tell them why it is necessary and work closely with them for preparing the same.

The users should be well informed about the security policies as well as subsequent updates of the organization.

8. Reviewing the data retention policy

The “right to be forgotten” indicates that data is no longer going to be required for the objective of its collection.

For complying, it is necessary for establishing the realistic retention period and defining the periods in a clean manner in the procedures and policies.

It is a great practice to enhance the privacy notices for the inclusion of purpose and consent.

In addition to this, you need to have informed the clients about the modification and keep a record of the same.

Thus, your clients should be aware of the necessary changes.

9. Seek assistance

The process to make your organization can consume a lot of time.

Hence, it is recommended to consult the legal time or lawyer that will be helpful during the course of the process.

You should ensure to document all the necessary changes that you need to make the procedures and processes.

Taking the prerequisite steps for getting compliant will be reducing the risks of vulnerabilities manifolds.

Conclusion

GDPR happens to be a global protection law that has been passed by EU. Under this protection act, the ownership of the data of the consumer is transferred to the business organization.

The GDPR is known for setting the higher standard for consent. It provides genuine control and choice to the individuals.

Every responsibility for the permission gets placed on the company.

Apart from seeking the permission of the people, they need to keep a record of the time, and the other aspects of conversation while seeking permission.