GDPR Services for US Businesses – What’s Included?

GDPR may be an EU regulation, but complying with it can help you mitigate risk and build consumer trust at home and overseas.

Data protection is a concern for every business – and every customer of every business – worldwide. In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has brought a tough, rigorous approach to data protection and if yours is a business that stores or processes the data of EU residents, you are bound by it just as much as you would be if your company was French, German or Spanish.

The way to meet your obligations under the GDPR is to appoint an EU GDPR representative. The GDPR rep is your person on the ground in Europe. They ensure you are compliant with the regulation, something of vital importance given that penalties for failing to comply can now reach €20 million (about 22.5 million US dollars) or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is greater. If your US business trades with Europe, you’d probably like to know precisely what services are wrapped up in the compliance work of the EU GDPR rep. in this post, we’ll discover that it’s a whole lot more than merely ‘compliance’.

Do you have to appoint a GDPR EU representative?

If you collect, process or store any significant (that is, not minimal) volume of data from EU residents and if you don’t have a physical presence on the ground in at least one EU state where you collect data, the answer is almost certainly yes – you will need a GDPR rep.

It’s also worth noting that ‘EU residents’ don’t have to have EU nationality – these could be US citizens resident in EU countries.

Key elements of GDPR services

Having established that your organization needs to appoint a European representative for GDPR, what should you expect of them? The role of the EU GDPR consultant includes:

• Data assessment and mapping: Do you understand exactly what data your organization collects? Do you know what you do with it, and how you store it? The rep will conduct a comprehensive assessment of your data processing activities, so you gain a thorough understanding of the way data flows through your business – and the potential risks it presents.
• Privacy policy and notice review: The GDPR requires every organization affected by it to have clear and transparent privacy policies that inform individuals about the collection, processing and use of their personal data. A significant part of the GDPR representative’s services will include helping US businesses review and update their privacy policies to align with GDPR requirements, enhancing transparency and providing individuals with essential information about their rights.
• Consent management: GDPR requires organizations to obtain valid and explicit consent from individuals for processing their personal data. Your GDPR rep will offer guidance on implementing effective consent management mechanisms, ensuring you have proper, compliant consent procedures in place.
• Data subject rights management: Under GDPR, individuals whose data you process or store are known as ‘data subjects’. GDPR grants data subjects several rights regarding their personal data, including the right to access, rectify, erase, and restrict processing. For most US businesses, where familiarity with GDPR is limited at best, the question must always be: if you were to receive a request from a data subject, would you a) know what to do with it and b) deal with it in a compliant way?
  Your EU GDPR consultant can help ensure you’re ready to handle data subject requests promptly and in compliance with GDPR requirements.
• Incident response planning: According to Statista, in 2022 the US suffered 1,802 data compromises affecting 422 million people. Since 2005, there’s been a 12x increase in the number of data breaches. What would you do if you suffered a breach of your data? Your GDPR rep will ensure your organization is prepared to handle any such breach, so you meet regulators’ strict breach notification requirements, contain the damage, and meet the expectations of your customers.

The urgency for US businesses

There are lots of reasons for US businesses to act with urgency over their GDPR services. These include:

• Mitigate risk: The penalties for non-compliance are potentially huge, and the risk of malicious attack continues to increase. Work with a GDPR rep and you don’t just prepare your business to comply with the GDPR; you prepare it to deal more effectively with any data breach anywhere.
• Enhance trust: US consumers want to deal with companies that respect their data. 92% of respondents to a KPMG survey said they were concerned about how the personal data they provide to companies is handled. By taking full advantage of GDPR services, you build trust with your EU consumers and, by extension, your domestic consumers too. It’s a powerful competitive advantage.
• Anticipate the future: US data protection laws are not as onerous or far reaching as the EU’s – but with the growing influence of AI, that is likely to change. By working with an EU GDPR consultant now, you place yourself at the forefront of data protection in the US and ensure that, as the law evolves, you’re already prepared for it.

GDPR services tailored to US businesses

GDPRLocal understands the unique requirements of US businesses seeking to achieve compliance with the GDPR. Our consultants can offer the expert guidance, strategic planning and practical solutions that can help you grow your EU market, and build trust and loyalty at home.

Find the right EU GDPR consultant for you now, get data protection advice or, for questions about your next steps, call us on +1 303 317 5998