What does GDPR compliance involve, and what are its two main areas?
GDPR compliance means ensuring that your organization collects and uses personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent way while giving individuals control over their information.
It rests on two key areas: data protection and data privacy.
Data Protection focuses on keeping information secure from unauthorized access or misuse. You must apply technical and organizational safeguards such as encryption, pseudonymization, and access controls from the earliest design stages of your products or services.
Data Privacy gives people (data subjects) the power to decide who can process their data and for what purpose. Under Chapter 3 of the GDPR, you must make it simple for users to exercise their rights and understand how their data is used.
Compliance in both areas builds trust, reduces risk, and helps avoid costly penalties.
What qualifies as “personal data” under the GDPR?
Personal data is any information that identifies or could identify a living person, directly or indirectly.
Examples include names, identification numbers, location data, online identifiers (such as IP addresses or cookies), and factors revealing someone’s physical, genetic, mental, economic, or social identity.
The GDPR applies to both automated (digital) and manual processing if the data is part of an organized filing system.
It protects natural persons regardless of nationality or residence, but not legal entities or data about deceased individuals.
What fundamental rights does the GDPR grant to individuals?
The GDPR gives every person in the EU enforceable rights over their data.
You must make it easy for them to exercise these rights:
Right of Access (Art. 15): Individuals can see what data you hold and how it’s used.
Right to Rectification (Art. 16): They can correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to Erasure (Art. 17): Also known as the “right to be forgotten.”
Right to Restriction (Art. 18): Temporary limits on processing in certain cases.
Right to Data Portability (Art. 20): Data must be exportable in a structured format.
Right to Object (Art. 21): If data is used for direct marketing, you must stop processing immediately.
What is the legal basis for processing personal data?
Processing is lawful only when it falls under one of the six bases in Article 6 of the GDPR:
The person has given explicit consent for specific purposes.
Processing is necessary to perform a contract with the individual.
Processing is required to comply with a legal obligation.
Processing protects vital interests of a person.
Processing serves a public task or official authority.
Processing pursues legitimate interests not overridden by individual rights.
If you rely on consent, it must be freely given, specific, informed, and easy to withdraw.
You must also clearly explain your legal basis and processing purposes in your privacy notice.
What technical and governance measures are required for compliance?
To meet GDPR obligations, organizations must combine strong security with effective governance:
Data Protection by Design and by Default (Art. 25): Integrate privacy safeguards from the start and ensure only necessary data is processed.
Security Measures: Apply encryption, pseudonymization, or anonymization, and train staff in data protection.
Data Protection Impact Assessment (Art. 35): Required for high-risk processing such as large-scale profiling or sensitive data handling.
Breach Notification (Arts. 33–34): Report personal data breaches to the authority within 72 hours unless risk is unlikely; notify affected individuals if the risk is high.
Data Processing Agreements (DPAs): Sign a DPA with each processor handling data on your behalf.
Data Protection Officer (DPO, Art. 37): Mandatory when you monitor individuals on a large scale or process special categories of data.
What are the penalties for GDPR non-compliance?
Supervisory authorities can issue warnings, orders, and substantial administrative fines.
Penalties are intended to be effective, proportionate, and dissuasive:
Up to €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover for internal failures such as missing DPOs or weak security controls.
Up to €20 million or 4% of global turnover for serious infringements, including unlawful processing, invalid consent, or violation of individual rights.
Authorities assess factors such as the nature and duration of the breach, intent or negligence, mitigation steps, and any profit gained from the infringement.
