GDPR Certification: Step by Step Guide

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) hasn’t just shaken up data privacy in Europe – it’s become a global trendsetter. Its influence has rippled across the world, inspiring similar laws and raising the bar for data protection everywhere.

 Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) and India’s proposed Personal Data Protection Bill share DNA with GDPR. Even in places without direct equivalents, GDPR has sparked conversations about data rights and privacy.

For global businesses, GDPR certification often serves as a solid foundation for meeting these emerging standards. It’s becoming a common denominator in the world of data protection, setting a benchmark that others are measured against.

TL;DR 

General Data Protection Regulation certification helps businesses prove that they are GDPR-compliant, meaning they protect European citizens from data loss due to cybercrime, terrorism, unethical business practices, and more

The fines for noncompliance with GDPR can be up to 4% of the annual revenue or €20 million, whichever is higher

GDPR is an essential compliance measure for doing business in the EU or dealing with data of citizens from the EU

What is GDPR?

The GDPR legislation is a landmark privacy legislation requiring companies that do business with EU citizens to comply. This means that most global businesses have felt its impact.

A survey by Thomson Reuters revealed that over 91 percent of companies are aware of the GDPR. Still, more than half of them struggled with compliance due to a lack of clarity on organizational measures or an inability to execute them.

In this blog, we look to help you understand all about GDPR compliance from scratch and how you can achieve compliance with these data protection laws.

The history of GDPR: How did the landmark legislation change the privacy landscape? 

The GDPR legislation went into effect on May 25, 2018, before which there was a 2 year grace period where companies had a chance to change policies to comply with the legislation. However, despite this period, companies were still struggling to meet the standards as there was a lot of ambiguity.

Once the grace period was over, it opened up a Pandora’s box of compliance concerns for businesses, with the fines and stakes at an all-time high and no clear path to achieving it.

In fact, a survey by Reuters revealed that over 79% of businesses failed to meet regulatory requirements after GDPR implementation compared to 72% before. This was especially true for the US, where 64% of businesses reported noncompliance. 

What is GDPR Certification?

GDPR certification proves to EU regulatory bodies such as EDPB (European Data Protection Board) and customers that businesses are GDPR compliant and adhere to required data protection principles. 

A GDPR compliance certification can be obtained from relevant accreditation bodies such as EuroPrise, TRUSTe, ISO 27001 ISMS, and Cyber Essentials and will eventually be offered by EDPB.

Understand the effort involved in a GDPR certification for your business, and calculate the man-hours required across teams using our compliance effort calculator. 

Key principles of GDPR Certification: Intent behind the framework

The key principles of GDPR are: 

• Lawfulness, fairness, transparency
• Purpose limitation 
• Data minimization 
• Accuracy
• Storage limitation
• Integrity and confidentiality
• Accountability

Importance of GDPR: Safeguard people’s privacy against big business

1. GDPR compliance aims to protect the data of EU citizens and provide data protection along with enforcing the right to privacy.
2. It gives teeth to EDPB to enforce huge fines on businesses that do not adhere to these regulations in their data processing operations and management systems.
3. It prevents data misuse and opacity that has plagued the tech sector, especially monopolies, which have a lot of lobbying power to flout legal obligations.
4. Achieving GDPR compliance also helps companies protect against data breaches or litigation that can cost the company to the tune of millions of Euros.

A few instances where GDPR has been invoked to protect the rights of EU citizens include:

1. Amazon was fined €746 million by Luxembourg’s data protection body for its opaque data collection practices. 
2. Whatsapp has been fined 225 million by the Ireland Data Protection Body for data breach and transparency.

Check out this video on GDPR fines and their impact on businesses to understand the ramifications of noncompliance with certification criteria.

How to get GDPR certification (The right way)?

From raising awareness and getting buy-in on GDPR to defining an actual process, figuring out how to get started can be overwhelming. That’s why it’s important to have a checklist in mind when starting this journey. 

While we will cover most of the steps below, to get a more detailed understanding of what it takes to implement GDPR compliance, you can download our GDPR audit checklist below. 

5 Steps to get GDPR certification in the right way:

Step 1: GDPR Certification Readiness and Planning + Groundwork

Create a plan of action by involving stakeholders and sharing the level of ownership that each person will have to take up. Ensure that you have their buy-in on the implementation timeline and the commitment from their side to meet the legal requirements.

Ideally, you should also involve them or give them an idea of how you will help make their life easier by using a consultant or compliance automation platform/GRC to roll out the security compliance program. Once you have everyone’s buy-in, start by presenting a gap analysis of your compliance posture along with expectations from each leader.

Step 2: Understand how data flows in your business 

As the essence of GDPR is around data privacy, it is essential to understand how data flows before undertaking any audit around it. Ensure you have a clear data flow path charted out that details all the data collected and processed, the basis for each processing, and more.

Identify all the internal discrepancies and gaps that you feel exist and also review from a user point of view if your communication around data collection is clear and transparent from a plain language perspective. Read the data subject rights blog to learn more about the legalities around collecting data and Article 30 to know more about ROPA (Report of Processing Activity) requirements. 

Step 3: Develop policies and training based on your data flow 

Once you have a clear idea of your data flow, draft internal policies that help you secure your data and showcase the right intent with the data. These policies include a Data Retention Policy, Consent Policy, Data Transfer Policy, and more. Let’s take a closer look at these policies below: 

Data processing can get even more complicated if there are external vendors involved in the equation, if you employ a cloud vendor for data storage, ensure that you get them to sign a Data processing agreement to understand what such an agreement should look like, you can check out our Data processing agreement template below!

Step 4: Hire or assign a DPO and give them ownership

You should also hire or assign a Data Protection Officer from your Compliance Team to make them a POC around all things GDPR audit and compliance. Their major responsibilities should cover monitoring compliance to GDPR, staying updated on EDPB directives around compliance, assigning responsibilities and following up on status, and communicating with EU authorities as needed in case of non-compliance. 

Step 5: Automate the audit process with compliance automation

Now that you have an understanding of the steps involved in GDPR certification, how do you ensure that these steps don’t take you months to implement? Well, choosing a consultant or trying to DIY a certification can be really a futile effort, either leaving you too dependent on external guidance or really without any help navigating.

The best way of going about it is choosing a Compliance automation platform or GRC system like Sprinto that helps you get compliant methodically and ensures all the work you do is reusable for future certifications. Without Excel sheets and ad hoc measures, Sprinto can help you get GDPR compliant without the hassle. 

To learn more about how Sprinto can help, watch the video below!

How long does it take to get GDPR certification?

The timeline for achieving GDPR certification can vary significantly based on several factors, such as the size and complexity of the organization, the current state of data protection practices, and the level of preparedness.

1. General timeline: Typically, the process can take anywhere from 3 to 18 months. For smaller organizations with fewer complexities, it may take closer to 3 to 6 months, while larger organizations with intricate data flows and multiple stakeholders can take up to 12 to 18 months to complete the process.
2. Preparation and Readiness: A significant portion of this time is spent on the initial preparation, such as conducting a gap analysis to identify compliance gaps, implementing necessary technical and organizational measures, and training staff on GDPR requirements.
3. Certification Process: Once the organization is prepared, the certification process itself involves a thorough review and audit by an accredited certification body, which can take several weeks to a few months depending on the scope and complexity of data processing activities. 

How much does it cost to become GDPR compliant?

The cost of becoming GDPR compliant can vary widely depending on several factors, but typically ranges from $20,500 to $102,500. This total includes:

1. Implementation fees: $10,000 to $25,000
2. Monitoring costs: $5,000 to $30,000
3. ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications: $3,500 to $10,000 each
4. Consultant fees: $5,000 to $15,000
5. Internal costs:
   • Security tools: $5,000 to $20,000
   • Security training: $500 to $20,500

The final cost depends on factors such as your organization’s size, complexity, current data protection practices, and the extent of personal data use. (here is detail article on GDPR compliance cost)

GDPR certification bodies: Who can grant you the certification? 

The European Privacy Seal (EuroPriSe): 

EuroPriSe has over 15 years of experience in the data certification space. It is a certification for IT products and IT-based services funded by the EU Commission. It aims to give a seal of approval to companies dealing with EU citizens’ data. 

TRUSTe: 

The TRUSTe certification is a seal of approval meant for US companies that do business in the European region or deal with EU citizen data. It combines regulatory standards such as ISO 27001, GDPR and more to help companies be compliant with US and European regulations together.

Get GDPR certification (the smarter, faster way)

GDPR compliance is a worthwhile investment for any cloud-hosted company—and not a burden—because it increases customer engagement and builds customer confidence. However, unless you use the smart tools that are available to you, it can be a cumbersome exercise. Here’s how to get compliant the easy way (with Sprinto) 

1. Sign up for Sprinto and add GDPR and other frameworks you are interested in. 
2. Get detailed onboarding and support on how GDPR is applicable to your business to understand logic behind all the controls. 
3. Connect Sprinto to your tech stack via integrations and let it run a check on your existing setup. 
4. Sprinto will reveal what are the gaps with respect to the controls mapped to the criterion of GDPR principles.
5. Add relevant owners as stakeholders and work towards the control gaps; the dashboard will reveal your progress.
6. Once the dashboard reflects your compliance, it is sent to a GDPR-approved certified body to get you certified. 
7. Get compliant and keep monitoring your compliance status on your dashboard (it’s that easy) 

Get started on your journey!

How Sprinto can help you automate GDPR certification process?

GDPR compliance is a worthwhile investment for any cloud-hosted company—and not a burden—because it increases customer engagement and builds customer confidence. However, unless you use the smart tools that are available to you, it can be a cumbersome exercise. Here’s how to get compliant the easy way (with Sprinto) 

1. Sign up for Sprinto and add GDPR and other frameworks you are interested in. 
2. Get detailed onboarding and support on how GDPR is applicable to your business to understand the logic behind all the controls. 
3. Connect Sprinto to your tech stack via integrations and let it run a check on your existing setup. 
4. Sprinto will reveal what are the gaps with respect to the controls mapped to the criterion of GDPR principles.
5. Add relevant owners as stakeholders and work towards the control gaps; the dashboard will reveal your progress.
6. Once the dashboard reflects your compliance, it is sent to a GDPR-approved certified body to get you certified. 
7. Get compliant and keep monitoring your compliance status on your dashboard (it’s that easy) 

Get started on your journey!

FAQs

What is GDPR certification?

GDPR certification enables individuals or entities to get certified by approved accreditation bodies like EuroPriSe or TRUSTe, which will demonstrate to customers and to the EU that they are GDPR-compliant. 

How to get GDPR compliance certification?

Obtaining GDPR compliance certification involves the following steps:

1. Prepare for GDPR certification
2. Define personal data policy
3. Create a list of processing activities
4. Define a process to manage data subject rights
5. Run a data protection impact assessment (DIPA)
6. Make personal data transfers safe
7. Amend third-party contracts
8. Secure personal and sensitive data
9. Define how data breaches will be handled

How can we become a GDPR certification body?

GDPR certification bodies need to fulfill the following criteria:

1. They demonstrate to the relevant supervisory authority their independence and expertise in the subject matter of the certification.
2. They have established procedures for the issue, withdrawal, and periodic review of data protection certifications, marks, or seals.
3. They have established structures and procedures for handling complaints regarding infringement of certification or the way in which the certification is being implemented. They should also make these procedures transparent to data subjects and the general public.
4. They should be able to demonstrate to the relevant supervisory authority that there is no conflict of interest with respect to their tasks and duties