Why is it Important for Developers to know about the GDPR Compliance?

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union law on privacy and data protection which is applicable to the Tech industry and European Union citizens. GDPR imposes the regulations on organizations that deal with the data and privacy of the people. The one who detracts from the provided security standards and regulations is subjected to harsh fines.

GDPR ensures privacy and protection of people’s data which they share or transfer through cloud services. The transparency of people’s information is assured with GDPR. Although GDPR is EU regulation, still most of the world is affected by it. The reason is that companies and businesses have most of their customers from the EU. To ensure their privacy and data protection, GDPR Compliance is applicable in the world.

The severe data breaches and data loss are the reason for the implementation of security walls that ensure GDPR compliance in order to protect the sensitive data from leaking. In 2018, there were 56% of social media data breaches, 78% of supply chain attacks, the US lost 46.5 records through data breaches and many more external data breaches and cyberattacks were recorded. This resulted in heavy fines and reputational loss of organizations with poor data security. Therefore it is necessary for the businesses to assure that they have complied with the GDPR checklist.

What is in the GDPR for the Programmers?

The data breaches and GDPR has imposed the security assurance on the developers. It is extremely important for the developers to comply with the regulations and implement them in their project solution. Implementation of correct security features accordingly with the GDPR compliance is necessary in order to prevent the organization from heavy risks and fines by the EU Government.

For this, the very first things to be pondered by the programmers is that “what are the GDPR concerns that impose responsibility on the developers?”, and “what they need to ensure regarding security measures?”.Below are some points that developers should be taking to ensure GDPR compliance.

• Data Protection

Developers must ensure that data processing should be lawful and transparent. Data must be used for legitimate purposes and must be used under the permission of a person with whom that data belongs. The usage of data should not be more than required and the data integrity must be taken into consideration. Customer data should be confidential in all senses, for this, developers should implement security that fulfills data protection requirements.

• Data Security

Developers must implement data security by keeping appropriate organizational and technical measures. Keeping in mind the protection of human rights, the regulatory requirements should meet. While providing cloud services to the customers, the contract must explicitly be according to the principles. It is applicable even if you are using two-factor authentication. Organizational measures include staff training regarding data privacy, data privacy handbook that mentions all do’s and don’t’s within the organization.

• Design Data Protection

The design of the application should be according to what is intended. It is easy to protect less information using the latest technology as compare to a large amount of data and its protection. Therefore, make sure that developers collect less information from the users.

• Data Processing

Users must be given the option of restricting their data processing. The user must give permission in order to process its data. The data processing must be according to legal obligations. There must be associated with the legitimate interest to ensure that the data is used for the right purpose in which no fraudulent intent is involved.

• Consent

Consent should be taken from the user that is freely given by the user, must be specified and informed. The consent must be unambiguous and clearly state the concerns of the users. Without the consent, data of the user should not be used in any way.

Developers must be concerned about the CIA triad. CIA is Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability. GDPR compliance ensures data privacy and protection. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the developer to take into consideration all the security parameters while catering to possible perspectives.

Developers’ Data Protection Concerns

While developing a full-fledge application, there are some data protection concerns that every developer should entertain. This is helpful in keeping yourself and your organization away from heavy fines and risks. Also, read about the companies who are developing tech-related software that how they have implemented GDPR in their system. There are some major data-related concerns that must be taken care of while programming a system.

Information Erasure and Usage

Many organizations take the support of third party services and SaaS products. The data processing is done by third-party tools, developers must embed functionality within the system that allows the end-users to delete their data from the system and also, the system itself makes sure that after the contract with third-party tools and software, the data is erased from their database. It is important to keep the customer data confidential so that it may not be used for any malicious activities.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

It is extremely important for any organization that is dealing with cloud services and online portals, to ensure KYC compliance in their system. This is helpful in mitigating the risks of online data breaches. Businesses must know the customers that are entering into their system and how they are behaving in it. The reason for cyberattacks is the loopholes that are exploited by the fraudsters. They capture the weakness in the system and steal sensitive information from it. This results in a heavy loss for the company’s economy.

Monitor the onboarding customer and ensure KYC and AML compliance. Implement background AML checks in the system to avoid money laundering activities from happening in the system.

Confidentiality with GDPR Compliance

A user should have knowledge and access to their data. The user’s information should be confidential and processed according to the GDPR agreement. To achieve the GDPR compliance goal, a programmer must code in a way that it covers all the requirements of GDPR principles. This would result in an organizational achievement and a remarkable reputation.

Before developing a system, a developer must go through all use-cases and applicable GDPR principles on the system. The security implementation should assure not only the benefit of an organization but the developer’s own software values based on GDPR compliance.