GDPR compliance isn’t easy. Just ask Meta, formerly Facebook, which recently faced $1.3 billion in fines for failing to protect user data and fulfill the requirements of GDPR regulations. That’s why GDPR compliance software — the set of applications that support organizations in conforming to the requirements of the European Union’s General Data Protection law — has become indispensable.
Given the expansiveness of GDPR requirements, it's become increasingly difficult to manage risk, enforce policies, perform audits, continuously monitor compliance, respond to incidents, and manually generate required reports.
As a result, organizations are turning to regulatory compliance software, particularly options that offer seamless integrations and automation. The GDPR is accelerating this trend for organizations of all types and sizes.
Understanding GDPR
The European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation to protect the personal data of people living in the EU. The data privacy and security law recognizes that everyone has the right to privacy and that technological changes have created challenges to that fundamental right.
The GDPR is meant to be “the toughest privacy and security law in the world.” Indeed, the EU recognizes that “compliance [is] a daunting prospect.” Their web portal introducing the law headlines that it “includes hundreds of pages’ worth of new requirements.”
And it’s sweeping in its application. Though it protects people in the EU, it applies to any organization in the world that handles the data of EU residents. It has become the model for similar regulations around the world.
The GDPR states that organizations can only collect essential data needed for their specific purposes and may keep it only as long as necessary. The law further requires transparency in communicating to EU individuals what data the organization is collecting and why it’s being collected. The data collected must be accurate and up to date, and organizations must process it in ways that ensure security, integrity, and confidentiality. Finally, the organization collecting the data must be able to prove compliance to the GDPR and be accountable for compliance.
Beyond the hundreds of pages of daunting requirements are fines and potential financial damages that can reach 4% of an organization’s global revenue, with each person or entity who suffers from a data breach having the right to compensation.
What is GDPR software?
Given the scope and impact of the law, companies are using GDPR compliance software, a specialized type of regulatory compliance software, to streamline adherence to its requirements.
The GDPR compliance software options available on the market today vary in capability and functionality.
Some of the common features of GDPR compliance software include:
- Creating an inventory of personal data collected and a map of its flow through the organization.
- Managing consent from people who are providing data, ensuring clear and transparent communication.
- Managing rights to data, such as giving people the right to access, correct, and erase their information.
- Conducting privacy assessments to identify risks and mitigate issues, especially when initiating new processes and systems.
- Ensuring compliance with the different provisions of the law.
- Providing core data security through encryption, access control, data confidentiality, and data integrity.
- Creating audit trails and documenting processes and systems through detailed and current records.
- Monitoring updates that may be issued to the GDPR law and adapting processes and systems to comply with any new requirements.
- Providing staff training to ensure each person knows their roles and responsibilities.
GDPR compliance software options offer varying degrees of automation to streamline your compliance operations. GDPR compliance automation improves efficiency, facilitating compliance in less time, with lower costs and less stress on your organization.
How to choose the best GDPR compliance tool for your needs
Choosing the best GDPR compliance software for your organization isn’t a one-size-fits-all task. Here are some criteria you can use to select the GDPR compliance automation solution that will best serve your needs:
- Features and functionality are the place to start your evaluation. Make sure your solution is comprehensive enough to address core elements of conforming with the GDPR.
- Scalability and integration ensure that the regulatory compliance software you choose fits into your existing IT infrastructure and can scale and evolve to support you as your organization and regulations change.
- The best GDPR compliance software simplifies compliance with user-friendly, intuitive designs and interfaces. Good design improves efficiency and makes implementation and use much easier.
- Choose software that allows you to easily comply with other privacy laws like CCPA or HIPAA, mapping shared controls for higher efficiency.
- Good customer support might not be top of mind, but when evaluating GDPR compliance software vendors, it should be at the top of your list. Having expert help at the ready when you need it makes sure small issues don’t become major problems.
Employ strategies beyond simply comparing feature sets and technical capabilities, reading reviews, checking certifications, and comparing terms.
Attend as many demos and training sessions as you can, asking questions and getting familiar with its features. Request references and then thoroughly interview them, focusing on the vendor’s expertise in GDPR and industry involvement, along with their customer service track record.
Top 15 GDPR compliance tools for 2024
When considering your GDPR compliance software options, consider the specific needs of your organization. The solutions below offer solid functionality and have earned high ratings from customers.
1. Apptega
- Apptega is a leading compliance automation software trusted by over 12,000 compliance programs to manage GDPR, CCPA, and dozens of other privacy and security frameworks. The platform’s strength is streamlining GDPR compliance through automation. Customers value the key features and functionalities that help them understand the nuances of this complex regulatory environment. We invite you to download The Complete Guide to GDPR Compliance.
- G2 rating: 4.7/5
- Top features: Streamlined assessment manager for 30+ compliance frameworks in addition to GDPR, framework crosswalking, risk manager, audit manager, integrations, multi-tenancy, and AI
- What customers love: Provides tremendous value, impressive capabilities
- What customers would improve: More apps to integrate with
- Best for: Security, compliance, and information technology professionals looking to build continuous compliance programs for GDPR and other frameworks at scale
2. Transcend
- The company offers automated GDPR capabilities to make managing data privacy easy, from data subject access requests to consent management. It also includes data inventory and mapping capabilities and a tool that facilitates data deletion.
- G2 rating: 4.6/5
- Top features: Automated DSAR management, consent management, data breach management, data deletion/retention tool, audit log, compliance reporting
- What customers love: Saves time through automation, does the heavy lifting
- What customers would improve: Some product glitchiness
- Best for: Easy data removal, access request management, ability to quickly identify personal data
3. Osano
- Primarily a data privacy platform, Osano helps organizations manage consent and data subject rights, manage vendor risk, and classify data. The tools automate many compliance tasks, from consent to adapting to regulatory changes. Touted as an all-in-one platform, the tools are designed to be simple and intuitive.
- G2 rating: 4.6/5
- Top features: Automated compliance, audit trains, identity verification, data subject access requests and consent, reporting, vendor risk management
- What customers love: Highly responsive support team, easy configuration
- What customers would improve: Could offer more options for customization and expanded reports
- Best for: Compliance automation, comprehensive data privacy management
4. Newrix
- The company’s Auditor platform provides visibility into data so organizations can spot and investigate threats to security. It supports audits that streamline the process and smoother IT operations in general.
- G2 rating: 4.4/5
- Top features: Data discovery, advanced threat detection and identification of threat patterns, customizable reports for audits
- What customers love: Straightforward and effective for auditing, simple to configure
- What customers would improve: Better training and a more intuitive user interface
- Best for: Providing visibility into user activity, changes in configurations, providing data access control on site and remotely, robust privacy and risk assessment
5. ISMS.online
- ISMS.online provides an information security, data privacy, and compliance platform that simplifies the process of complying with several standards and regulations, including GDPR. It boats 81% out-of-the-box progress with a pre-built bank of frameworks, tools, and controls.
- G2 rating: 4.6/5
- Top features: Integrated information security management, privacy, business continuity, compliance, audits, asset management, dynamic risk management, policies and controls, mapping and linking
- What customers love: Head start from not creating documentation from scratch, responsive support team
- What customers would improve: Could be easier to navigate, find things, and create best practices to stay compliant, doesn’t integrate with task management tools
- Best for: Fast and easy certification due to pre-built templates and robust toolset, along with step-by-step guidance and one central hub
6. OneTrust
- Designed for meeting GDPR requirements, the tools support data privacy, risk monitoring, and customer consent management.
- G2 rating: 4.3/5
- Top features: Intuitive dashboard, data inventory and mapping, incident response, vendor risk management, compliance reporting
- What customers love: Easy implementation, good customer support and training
- What customers would improve: High costs, could use more metrics
- Best for: Automated assessments, data visualization
7. Solarwinds Security
- The company provides GDPR as a small part of its large offering of IT and data management tools. Some of these help with compliance, such as its Patch Manager utility to identify needed software updates, which addresses the GDPR requirement for secure processing.
- G2 rating: 4.0/5
- Top features: Network monitoring, access controls, log management, incident management, risk assessments, configuration management, compliance reports
- What customers love: Ready to use, easy to understand, customizable
- What customers would improve: Limited documentation, slow response times
- Best for: Customizing reports, data visualization, integration with other Solarwinds solutions
8. ZenGRC
- This governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solution is a general information security ecosystem that can contribute to GDPR compliance programs. The platform is either cloud-based or on-premise, and it automates many aspects of compliance.
- G2 rating: 4.4/5
- Top features: Audit management and checklists, risk identification, data security and privacy management, access controls
- What customers love: User-friendly and customizable
- What customers would improve: Could make integration easier, some modules not mature
- Best for: End-to-end risk management, compliance automation, continuous monitoring, efficient audit management
9. PrivIQ
- This company offers applications that manage and safeguard data, evaluate privacy risks, automate compliance, generate audit reports, and manage user requests. It keeps organizations compliance ready with real-time reports and task tracking.
- G2 rating: 5/5 (few reviews)
- Top features: Compliance readiness task tracking, interactive real-time reports, risk assessments, privacy impact assessments, team collaboration tools
- What customers love: Streamlines compliance, can tailor to other frameworks
- What customers would improve: Limited reporting capabilities and flexibility
- Best for: Privacy management, data protection
10. Onspring
- These applications automate a broad range of task areas, including governance, risk, and compliance for GDPR, IT service management, and business operations. The ready-made solutions in each area are meant to get clients started in under 30 days and then simplify workflows.
- G2 rating: 4.7/5
- Top features: Risk management, third-party risk, controls, compliance, audit management, policy lifecycles, CMMC, BC/DR
- What customers love: Easy to use and adapt, good customer support
- What customers would improve: Better integration options
- Best for: Automating repetitive tasks
11. StandardFusion
- Billed as a GRC solution, StandardFusion helps teams manage risks, vendors, and audits for GDPR and other frameworks.
- G2 rating: 4.6/5
- Top features: Risk management, audit management, regulatory change management, third-party risk management, privacy, and security
- What customers would improve: Best for internal use, reporting could improve
- Best for: Integrating compliance on one platform.
12. Enactia
- The Enactia GDPR solution uses AI to manage privacy, monitor and mitigate risks, perform automated risk checks, and conduct compliance assessments.
- G2 rating: No rating
- Top features: GDPR data controller checklist, variety of cybersecurity assessments, features for managing breaches and incidents, customizable reports, intuitive features, and strong customer support and teaching materials
- What customers love: No reviews available yet
- What customers would improve: No reviews available yet
- Best for: An enhanced user experience, supporting other frameworks alongside GDPR
13. Wired Relations
- Wired Relations offers a set of cloud-based GDPR compliance solutions for mapping and inventorying data, identifying risks, and managing consent across platforms.
- G2 rating: No rating
- Top features: Data discovery and classification, third-party assessments, policy and procedure guidelines, team collaboration, audit-ready reporting
- What customers love: No reviews available yet
- What customers would improve: No reviews available yet
- Best for: Vendor management, customization
14. Iubenda
- Described as a legal compliance tool and consent management platform, Iubenda’s solutions focus on scanning records, identifying weak areas, and then generating compliant policies and documents.
- G2 rating: 4.4/5 (few reviews)
- Top features: Site scanner, document creation and updating, on-hand legal team
- What customers love: Highly supportive legal team
- What customers would improve: Language support
- Best for: Complete and compliant documentation
15. Dataships
- The company does not offer a complete GDPR solution but instead focuses on optimizing marketing consent collection, with a strong emphasis on ecommerce.
- G2 rating: No rating
- Top features: Limited to marketing consent rate functionality
- What customers love: No reviews available yet
- What customers would improve: No reviews available yet
- Best for: Retailers
GDPR compliance is a high-stakes obligation
Navigating the complexities of GDPR compliance is a huge challenge that businesses operating within or targeting the European Union must face.
The tools listed can automate and simplify many aspects of complying with the requirements of the GDPR, from data mapping and processing activities to gap assessments and audit automation.
Technology is only part of dealing with the GDPR challenge. True compliance requires an approach that combines the strengths of these tools with a deep understanding of GDPR principles, a culture of privacy awareness, and a commitment to the ethical handling of personal data.
Using GDPR automation software, organizations can not only meet the stringent requirements of GDPR but also build customer trust, protect their reputations, and create more secure and privacy-focused business environments. You’ll find that Apptega is a top choice to meet all these goals in 2024.
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