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How To Ensure Your Business Maintains GDPR Compliance

Posted: 20th March 2020 12:07
We’re beginning to approach the two-year mark since GDPR was introduced across Europe, at first giving a big shake up to companies scrambling to make sure their internal processes were within the guidelines that had been set-out. For many then as is now, it was business as usual - and the others who may have been caught off by the changes should now feel at relative ease - but now that some time has passed, how  confident are you that you still remain within GDPR compliance?
 
There are many tools that have been helpful for those looking for a little extra security such as Businessport’s GDPR compliance offering, but for those without the added help from software, a look at where your GDPR gaps could be may help avoid any issues down the line, especially now as they may have fallen out of mind. The last thing you want to find is that after all the effort and preparation going into ensuring you maintain GDPR, that a process had been missed along the way.

Handling Information Requests
 
These may be infrequent if at all, but make up the cornerstone of GDPR compliance as a focus on data protection for your customer - if this is something that you haven’t yet been requested to handle, the systems in place to do so may have since been forgotten. Having dry-runs to ensure that your data handlers know what to do in the event of information requests could save time and resources in the long run.

Revisiting your policies and processes.
 
After two years, you may not have taken another look at the policies since the documentation was prepared and may find that some of your processes have slipped back to how they were pre-GDPR. You may also need to look at any GDPR processes you have in place, checking your opt-ins and consent areas, and ensuring your legacy contacts have all been updated may all be of help here. Taking another look at the policies you have in place is a good way to ensure that your operations are still within GDPR compliance.

Demonstrating your compliance
 
Even though nothing may have happened, the ability to display you’re compliant with regulations is still very important, if there is ever an investigation into your process or data handling, you want to be sure that you can show the way you handle your customer information is within the guidelines set out. As with our mention of how you may handle data requests, if you’re unable to demonstrate that you are compliant with the guidelines then the hard work of putting them in place could cause you some issues.
 
All of this may seem a little too much, and especially those of you who haven’t yet had to deal with any GDPR requests it may seem like a big deal was made for no real purpose - but with the transitional year long behind and with that there can’t be any excuses for why things have been missed. With the penalties potentially being very high, and over €400 million in fines already being handed out since the change in 2018, is the risk of receiving a potential fine something that you can afford?