What is GDPR?
On May 25 2018, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) went into effect, changing how companies around the world deal with the personal data of people residing in the EU.
At Showpad, we take data security and privacy seriously. With a corporate headquarters in Ghent (Belgium), and North American headquarters in Chicago (US), we will continue to be at the forefront of the latest changes. This gives our customers enough information to be compliant while offering them the flexibility to make changes according to their organizational needs.
First, the EU wants to give consumers more control over how their personal data is used. The current law was put in place before recent cloud technology advancements that make it easier for companies to access and use consumer data. With the new law, the EU hopes to regain consumer trust in an age where data exploitation has become common.
Second, the EU wants to give businesses simple and clear rules for the use of consumer data, and make the regulation identical throughout the EU to avoid claims of misunderstanding and confusion.
Businesses need to be ready. Consumer and business data will always play an important role in the practice of sales and marketing, so companies that conduct business in the EU must learn how to collect and analyze this data ethically and adhere to the new regulation.
Who is impacted?
Even if your company is based outside the EU, GDPR applies to your organization if you are offering services that process personal data of EU residents, or if you are monitoring behavior of people residing in the EU. So if you have email lists that include EU citizens, you’ll need to be compliant too.
How does Showpad address GDPR?
To help our customers with compliance, we continuously add flexibility to our online platform, mobile apps, email plugins, and integrations. Our latest additions allow our customers to:
Request consent to process data of Showpad users and prospects
Admins have the option to request both Showpad users and prospects to acknowledge a privacy policy – allowing you to track your users’ behavior in Showpad and to see how prospects interact with shared content.
Configure the time to forget prospect data
GDPR requires that customer data must be forgotten as soon as it is no longer relevant. Relevance may be defined differently from one organization to the next. Unlike other solutions which require admins to contact the vendor to configure when customer data should be removed, Showpad delivers flexibility, ease and control by providing admins the option to set a time after which customer data is considered irrelevant.
Execute a Data Processing Agreement
Your organization may require a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) for suppliers that process certain personal data for you. If this is the case, Showpad has a self-executable DPA available at www.showpad.com/dpa.