Cyber

GDPR platform

by Mark Rowe

As the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect in May, companies are seeking to ensure that they will meet the new regulation in time for the deadline. Previous national variations on the data protection laws will be reduced to a minimum across the EU, making business transactions and engagement across state borders simpler. However, as a result there will be stricter requirements on handling personal data, as well as a broader view on what personal data is. Consent must be explicit, clearly distinguishable from other matters and in plain text. It must also be as easy to withdraw as to give, ideally using the same mechanism used to obtain it.

ICONFIRM say that their platform is designed to make compliance easier by processing personal data and giving businesses the opportunity to:

Obtain and document consent for processing personnel data
Authenticate consent-givers
Restrict data processing (including to defined third parties) until consent is obtained
Inform individuals of the purpose of data gathering, along with any other relevant details
Manage access controls and generate reports and notifications on data
Provide an end-user portal where the user can manage their rights beyond consent, effectively communicating between the data controller and data subject

ICONFIRM also allows data controllers to fulfil the requirements for valid consent and consent administration, as well as being used to store personal data processed based on consent and authentication. It is dedicated to privacy and is embedded in the data flow between the end-user and company. This way it can be used as a standalone solution, but importantly can also be easily, and securely plugged-in to existing systems to ensure data integrity.

Mike McEwan, UK Director and VP International Sales at ICONFIRM says: “On the face of it, GDPR looks to be a logistical nightmare for companies. However, that does not have to be the case. We believe that GDPR should be considered an opportunity, not just to secure adherence to the regulation, but actually to ensure you’re talking to data subjects that want to interact, enabling you to clean up databases and as a result increase customer loyalty and reduce churn.

“The amount of confusing and often contradictory noise in the market is causing companies real headaches. For example, much of the commentary is surrounding the ‘consent’ part of the GDPR regulation. However, in the regulation there is as much emphasis on the ‘communication’ aspect, giving data subjects the chance to retract permission and manage their rights.

“By ensuring our product focuses on making the process as easy as possible for both the company and the end user, we are taking much of the mystery away from the regulation, whilst giving reassurance to the data subject, ICONFIRM has gained initial success throughout the Nordics with partners now gaining traction with direct marketing, retail, telecoms and public sector organisations. It has also secured agreements with the largest IT companies throughout the region.

Christian Butenschon, founder and CEO at ICONFIRM, described the product as ‘instant pain relief from the growing GDPR headache’. He said: “Companies have to focus on the most important factor, the data subject, without this focus they cannot hope to achieve compliance.

“We originally set up the platform to meet the strict privacy requirements and practices for processing personal medical data between health insurance, clinics and patients. We knew therefore, that we had the skeleton of a product that could very easily help organisations become GDPR compliant, without too much fuss or time, or making a huge impact on their existing systems. We are looking to the UK market as we believe that there is a real opportunity here to help organisations struggling with GDPR. In a relatively short amount of time the UK is in all likelihood going to be similar to that of the Norwegian market. It will be outside EU membership, but still very much under the obligation of being GDPR compliant. We have the experience and product to help and understand the specific concerns and issues for companies in this position.”

Go to https://www.iconfirm.eu/uk/.

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