Quick Guide: How to Implement Data Privacy Framework? 

Did you know that 76% of users think companies should do more to safeguard their data online?

But here’s the big question: Are you doing everything you can to protect your client’s data?

If you’re uncertain, examining your current practices more closely is crucial. 

As organizations increasingly rely on data-driven processes, safeguarding personal and confidential data has never been more critical. 

This guide will walk you through the steps to implement a solid data privacy framework from scratch. We’ll cover everything from setting clear objectives to defining your scope, helping you establish a strong and reliable privacy program.

Let’s dive in…

What is a data privacy framework?

 A data privacy framework is a structured set of guidelines to safeguard personal information. The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework replaces the Privacy Shield program, which permitted the secure transfer of personal data of EU residents to the U.S. These data transfers were permissible, as they complied with EU privacy regulations. 

To join the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, organizations must self-certify their adherence to its principles to the Department of Commerce. 

Failure to adhere to these principles may violate Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices. A data privacy framework is an organized way to ensure your organization complies with all operations.

How do you comply with the data privacy framework?

To comply with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, companies must keep personal data safe when sending it to the US.  To comply with the data privacy program framework, your organization must follow these steps:

1. Understand the DPF program

Start by evaluating your data environment to develop an understanding of your data landscape and to be able to assess its current state and the maturity of your data privacy practices. 

Identify your data privacy objectives and conduct an in-depth analysis of your data landscape — that is, uncover the types of data that you collect, store, process, and share, as well as their repositories, classifications, and access permissions. 

2. Get a self-certification

To get started, you need to obtain a self-certification. You can do this by visiting the DPF program website hosted by the US Department of Commerce (DoC). Here, you’ll find all the instructions and details you need for the self-certification process.

3. Show commitment to Data Privacy

Once you obtain the DPF program certification, it shows that you are a company dedicated to data privacy efforts and can increase trust. All registered organizations are listed on the Data Privacy Framework List.

4. Understand your company’s legal requirements 

There are different sets of legal requirements to fulfill for companies across geographical regions: 

• For current EU-US privacy shield certified companies:  In case your enterprise is under a certificate covered by the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, your verification process is already finished, and you don’t need to get another DPF certification. You may adhere to the Privacy Shield compliance, assuming you’re assured.
• For companies who seek self-certification under the EU-US privacy shield:  If you intend to get your company acknowledged under the EU-US Privacy Shield about the observance of the DPF principles for the first time, you will necessarily be supposed to submit an application that confirms your compliance with the Principles.
• For companies with expired EU-US privacy shield certification: If you are the company with expired Privacy Shield certification or those who withdrew, you must certify under the EU-US Data Protection Framework. You will use the same credentials from Privacy Shield to log into the EU-US Data Privacy Framework website.

5. Update data privacy policies

Make sure your privacy policies match the DPF principles. Include clear details about how you collect, process, and share data, as well as your company’s identity, contacts, reasons for data collection, who gets the data, individuals’ rights over their data, and how they can use those rights.

6. Compliance with data privacy principles

Adherence to the privacy principles outlined in the DPF, including limitations on data collection, purpose restriction, data retention, deletion when no longer necessary, and respect for individual rights, is of utmost priority for companies.

Here are 7 core principles in DPF you need to follow:

a) Notice

You must share online privacy notices detailing your participation in the Framework like

• Data collection and processing practices
• Individual rights on data access and correction
• Options for limiting data use 

b) Choice

Here, you need to offer individuals the option to opt out of sharing their personal information with third parties or using it for purposes beyond its original intent.

c) Data integrity and purpose limitation

You must limit data processing to its intended purposes only, ensure data accuracy, and retain information only as long as necessary.

d) Security

If you are handling personal data, you must take reasonable measures to protect it from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access.

e) Access

You must provide a way for individuals to access and correct the personal information held by your company.

f) Recourse, Enforcement, and Liability

Recourse, Enforcement, and Liability include 3 crucial aspects within the framework. First, it ensures that individuals impacted by non-compliance have the means to seek recourse and resolve issues promptly. Then, it outlines the consequences that organizations may face in the event of non-compliance. Lastly, it mandates compliance verification measures.

g) Onward Transfer

When it comes to sharing personal information, what’s required depends on who’s getting the data.

1. For data controllers: Companies must comply with Notice and Choice Principles and sign a contract with third-party controllers to ensure data protection.
2. For agents: Additional obligations for agents include limiting data transfer purposes, ensuring agent compliance with privacy standards, and providing privacy contract details to the Department of Commerce.

Components of data privacy framework

Your data privacy compliance framework is a living guide that ensures safe communication and teamwork. It safeguards your company’s data from unauthorized access and misuse.

Here are some components you need to be aware of while implementing a data privacy framework:

1. Data security

Keep personal information safe. Store and handle it securely to prevent unauthorized access, loss, or theft.

2. Consumer privacy

Safeguarding the sensitive personal information customers share

3. Consent

Consent involves getting, organizing, and recording individuals’ agreement for collecting, using, and sharing their personal information.

4. Accountability for onward transfer

In case a company shares personal data covered by a policy with a third party that isn’t an agent, it will ensure this is done in line with any notice given to data subjects and any choices they’ve made about how their data is used and shared.

5. Access

Participating countries must allow individuals to access their data and request corrections or deletions when necessary.

6. Data integrity and purpose limitation

Personal data should only be used and kept for the purpose it was collected for and with the individuals’ consent. You must also ensure their data is accurate, up-to-date, and maintained securely.

7. Notice

The DPF Notice Principle means that a certified business must tell individuals whose personal data is protected by DPF about it.

8. Policies

Create straightforward policies and steps. The foundation of any level of protection for data is having clear policies and procedures in place.

9. Data minimization

Collecting only the necessary data for a specific purpose, avoiding unnecessary information.

10. Data governance

The data governance part of the framework Includes information on how to gather, handle, and safeguard personal data.

Also read: A Quick Guide to Data Security Regulations

How to implement a data privacy framework?

Implementing a data privacy framework involves several key steps to ensure the protection of sensitive information and compliance with regulations. Here are the steps with a detailed explanation of each part of the process. 

1. Understand your data landscape

To understand and assess your data landscape, evaluate your data environment. Begin by setting your data privacy objectives and thoroughly examining your data landscape. This involves identifying the data types you collect, store, handle, and share, their storage locations, categorization, and access permissions.

Also, investigate potential risks such as data breaches, unauthorized access, or data misuse within your organization.

Conducting a data landscape assessment helps pinpoint weaknesses and opportunities for improving your data privacy practices. It also provides insights into the scale and complexity of your data privacy efforts.

2. Create a scope statement for your privacy program

The next step is to clearly outline the scope of your privacy challenges and ensure they are understood within your company and by your clients. 

To establish this, consider the fundamental principles that form the basis of your data privacy obligations. Remember that these principles serve as the foundation for your privacy framework and guide its development. 

This includes (but is not limited to) the following: 

• Identification of personal data
• Data processing activities
• Compliance requirements
• Employee training and awareness
• Technical and organizational measures.
• Incident response and breach management

How can you do this?

Start by gathering information to identify legal obligations within privacy regulations based on the geographical locations where the data is being processed.

For example, in Canada, privacy regulations vary depending on the entity type and jurisdiction. You need to assess the primary jurisdictions, identify relevant regulations, and understand the strictest requirements to comply.

3. Design data privacy policies and procedures

With your scope defined, focus on creating policies and procedures that govern data collection, processing, and sharing. 

Align them with your data privacy objectives and industry standards. You can embrace principles like data minimization and purpose limitation for this. 

For example, as part of data minimization, you can inform visitors about the purpose of biometric data collection for security checks. 

4. Conduct a privacy gap analysis

Assess your privacy practices by conducting a thorough gap analysis across all business units. Understand how personal data is managed across the organization to identify improvement areas. 

How can Sprinto help?

Sprinto, a compliance automation tool, simplifies this process by continuously monitoring your security controls and offering real-time insights into your compliance and privacy status. 

With Sprinto, you can receive timely alerts about potential control failures and actionable recommendations to address security and privacy gaps.

5. Implement and operationalize privacy policies 

Now that you’ve conducted a gap analysis, it’s time to remediate the issues and implement your data privacy policies and procedures through implementation and operationalization. 

This involves ensuring your staff, partners, and vendors follow corporate rules and guidelines.

However, depending on your specific data privacy framework and landscape, you may need to deploy various data privacy solutions and tools. 

These could include:

• Data encryption
• Privacy notices on websites
• Data masking
• Data anonymization
• Data governance
• Cataloging
• Consent Management
• Breach notification
• Access management
• Compliance management tool
• Continuous monitoring tool

Integrating these solutions with your existing data infrastructure and systems is crucial for compatibility and scalability.

6. Conduct regular data privacy training

Now, the next step is to ensure that regular data privacy training sessions are conducted to educate staff about the data privacy framework and their roles within it. 

This involves identifying training materials, developing training needs, providing resources, and tracking the effectiveness of all these. Make sure you assign clear responsibilities and provide the necessary skills and knowledge to fulfill these roles effectively.

How can Sprinto help?

Sprinto is an automated compliance tool offering built-in security training programs, including framework-specific modules, at no extra cost. Sprinto keeps the training content updated and relevant while providing detailed visibility into employee training progress. Also, Sprinto automatically collects evidence of privacy, relieving you of manual tracking tasks.

7. Continuously monitor and evaluate

Ensure the successful implementation of the privacy framework by reviewing it on a periodical basis and avoid being caught up in a hurry that often comes with last-minute rushes and compliance issues. 

Integrating compliance monitoring as part of your regular practice is one more way of setting things up in advance so that you can detect and solve any emerging problems on a timely basis.

A manual approach to privacy compliance can be cumbersome and risky. However, utilizing a compliance automation solution like Sprinto can streamline the process. 

How can Sprinto help?

Sprinto connects with your systems to monitor controls against privacy frameworks such as GDPR or the EU Data Privacy Framework. It conducts compliance tests, collects evidence, and alerts security teams to control failures, allowing for timely corrective actions to maintain compliance throughout the year.

Learn more about how continuous monitoring works with Sprinto:

Compliances that can help you with data privacy

There are many compliances that can help you with data privacy. The data your customers entrust to your business contains highly sensitive and valuable information. This is why, to safeguard individual privacy, several data privacy compliance measures have been established. 

Once your organization adheres to the frameworks we have listed below, you will be deemed compliant and authorized to conduct business within these specified regions. Here’s an overview of some key ones:

1. GDPR (EU)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the most stringent privacy and security laws globally. Originating from the European Union (EU), its impact extends to companies worldwide if they handle data concerning individuals in the EU.

According to GDPR, companies must gather personal data lawfully and under specific conditions. Moreover, they bear the responsibility of safeguarding this data from misuse and exploitation while upholding the rights of data owners. Failure to comply with GDPR can lead to financial penalties.

2. CCPA (California)

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a comprehensive data privacy law enforced across the state. Its primary aim is to govern the handling of California residents’ personal information (PI).

The CCPA applies to for-profit businesses globally if they meet any of the following criteria:

• Process personal information from over 50,000 California residents yearly.
• Have an annual gross revenue surpassing US $25 million.
• Generate more than 50% of their annual revenue from selling the personal information of California residents.

3. PDPA (Singapore)

Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) sets out rules to safeguard personal data. It covers how organizations collect, use, disclose, and manage personal information.

According to the PDPA, organizations need to get consent from individuals before gathering, using, or sharing their data. This consent should be given willingly, based on clear information, and for a specific purpose.

4. PDPA (Thailand)

Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) took effect on June 1, 2022, serving as the country’s first data privacy legislation. The Thai PDPA borrows most of its content from the EU’s GDPR but also includes the Thai notion of consent.

The PDPA imposes accountability measures on organizations processing personal data in Thailand or of Thai citizens to ensure adequate protection. The obligations shall be performed regardless of whether the organizations are constituted under Thai laws or have a presence in Thailand.

5. PDPB (India)

India’s Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) is a proposed legal framework that seeks to regulate the processing of personal data. It is still in draft form and awaiting ratification by the Parliament, which is anticipated to be one of the most stringent data protection laws globally.

The draft bill may undergo some amendments before it is presented to the Parliament; it is meant to be a groundwork on which the final law regulating data protection in India will be based.

6. NDB (Australia)

The Notifiable Data Breach scheme is a requirement that the Australian government introduced for all agencies and organizations that fall under the jurisdiction of the Privacy Act (1988).

This legislation makes it legally binding that these entities must inform affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) if a data breach is likely to cause serious harm to individuals whose personal information is involved.

To stick to the NDB guideline, agencies and organizations should foresee possible data leaks and rapid response strategies that should minimize and control the damages. Entities should use the Notifiable Data Breach form while notifying the Commissioner.

7. PIPEDA (Canada)

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) is a federal law in Canada designed to regulate how organizations handle personal information during commercial activities.

To align with the European Union’s GDPR, Canada introduced the Data Privacy Act, an amendment to PIPEDA, effective November 1, 2018. This amendment added new regulations to PIPEDA, including rules for consent, data breach reporting, and changes to its scope.

8. Data Security Admi