Say Hi to GDPR compliance without the spreadsheet panic

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the EU's comprehensive privacy law that governs how organisations handle personal data. In effect since May 2018, it imposes strict requirements on data collection, storage, and security. GDPR applies to any organisation worldwide that processes data about people in the EU—making it a global privacy benchmark. Violations can result in fines up to €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover.

If you offer goods or services to people in the EU, or monitor their behaviour (e.g., web analytics), GDPR applies—regardless of where your business is based. A US startup selling to European customers must comply. So must a UK firm post-Brexit (via UK GDPR).

GDPR requires organisations to:

• Have a lawful basis for processing personal data (consent, contract, legitimate interest, etc.)
• Maintain records of processing activities
• Implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures
• Honour data subject rights (access, deletion, rectification, portability)
• Report data breaches within 72 hours
• Appoint a Data Protection Officer (in certain cases)
• Conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments for high-risk processing

The UK's Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA) streamlines certain UK GDPR obligations while maintaining core protections. Key changes include:

• Recognised legitimate interests that no longer require balancing tests
• Relaxed cookie consent for analytics and functionality cookies
• "Reasonable and proportionate" limits on Subject Access Requests
• Broader consent for scientific research
• Mandatory privacy-by-design for services likely used by children

These changes lighten administrative burden in the UK while keeping privacy protections strong.

Individuals have the right to:

• Access their personal data
• Rectification of inaccurate data
• Erasure (right to be forgotten)
• Restriction of processing
• Data portability (receive data in machine-readable format)
• Object to processing (especially for direct marketing)
• Not be subject to automated decision-making without human review

Organisations must respond to these requests within one month (extendable by two months if complex).

Key steps include:

• Maintain an up-to-date data inventory (records of processing activities)
• Document lawful bases for all processing
• Keep consent records where applicable
• Ensure privacy policies are current and transparent
• Complete Data Protection Impact Assessments for high-risk activities
• Maintain evidence of security measures (encryption, access controls, breach procedures)
• Train staff and document awareness programs
• Review and update third-party processor agreements

Using a platform like Hicomply keeps this evidence organised and audit-ready at any time.

GDPR operates on a tiered penalty system:

• Tier 1: Up to €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover for violations like inadequate record-keeping or breach notification failures
• Tier 2: Up to €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover for serious infringements like violating core processing principles or data subject rights

Beyond fines, regulators can issue warnings, reprimands, or processing bans. Reputational damage and loss of customer trust are equally costly consequences.

Traditional GDPR compliance can take 6–12 months of manual documentation, spreadsheet tracking, and constant monitoring. With Hicomply, most of the work is automated—from data mapping to consent tracking to DSAR workflows. Our GDPR automation software fast-tracks compliance, reduces manual effort by up to 90%, and ensures you're always audit-ready.

Book a free demo to see it in action.

Hicomply provides:

• Hicomply Privacy™ module with built-in GDPR framework
• Automated data mapping and processing record maintenance
• DSAR workflow management with deadline tracking
• Consent tracking and documentation
• Policy templates aligned to GDPR articles
• Integration with 75+ applications for automated evidence collection
• Real-time monitoring of compliance status
• Built-in framework updates when regulations change

Audit-ready evidence repository and reporting

Absolutely. GDPR principles scale with your size—you're not expected to have enterprise-grade everything from day one. The regulation is proportionate: smaller processing operations have lighter obligations. Our automation makes GDPR accessible for growing teams without the traditional consulting overhead.

Hicomply integrations includes:

• HR systems (BambooHR, Workday, Gusto, Rippling, ADP Workforce Now) for employee data tracking
• Cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, SharePoint) for document evidence
• Project management (Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Linear, Basecamp) for task tracking
• Ticketing systems (Zendesk, ServiceNow, Freshdesk) for DSAR workflow management
• Identity management (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace) for access control evidence
• File storage & collaboration for automated evidence collection

Visit our Integrations page for the complete list.

GDPR's data protection principles align closely with:

• ISO 27001 (information security)
• ISO 27018 (cloud privacy)
• SOC 2 (data security and privacy trust criteria)
• NIST Privacy Framework (privacy risk management)

What you build for GDPR—policies, data inventories, security controls—serves as foundation for other frameworks. Hicomply lets you map one control to multiple standards, avoiding duplicate work.