Best GDPR Compliant Cloud Storage 2023

Best GDPR Compliant Cloud Storage

The General Data Protection Regulation, also known as GDPR, was created with the sole idea of helping people acquire the privacy they need within the European Union. This regulation is focused on data privacy and protection. It also focuses on the transfer of personal data and how companies are using personal data and process it to the best of their capabilities. The best GDPR compliant cloud storage is the one that takes great care of your privacy and secures your files with client-side encryption.

You should look at our Top 10 Cloud Storage Providers list to find the best GDPR compliant cloud storage.

GDPR was made in April 2016 and it has been implemented since 25 May 2018. The most important aspect by it is the fact that it covers any industry, as long as your business is using any customer’s personal data, you need to abide by it. This reform was a long time coming and it’s a clear indication of the current state of our society. The primary focus is to make sure that every person whose data is processed online will not have to worry about data leaks or problems.

Another issue that the General Data Protection Regulation is trying to prevent is the misuse of data. Until GDPR, a lot of companies mishandled user data and people didn’t know where and how their data is used. The General Data Protection Regulation prevents that since the customer needs to share his consent on having his data processed or used, and in some cases, he can even be compensated.

Most corporations in the world need a General Data Protection Regulation strategy and they have to work very hard in order to bring in outstanding solutions. The thing to note is that the General Data Protection Regulation is covering the EU, but also companies that work with customers or other businesses in the EU. Simply put, just about all businesses with a global audience will need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation.

The GDPR can be applied to processors and controllers. A controller is a person that determines when and how personal data is processed, whereas the processor is the entity that will process all that personal data on behalf of the controller. The General Data Protection Regulation focuses on both entities.

The reason why the General Data Protection Regulation is important is because it focuses on punishing companies when there’s a data breach. When companies accumulate data, they are promising customers that their data is safe. However, many of them don’t really have a safe infrastructure where they can keep data. As a result, hackers can easily access all that information and in the end, what happens is everyone ends up with issues. That’s something you really have to tackle at a professional level to avoid any kind of mishaps and major issues.

Due to that, the General Data Protection Regulation will focus on placing legal obligations on the processor, so he can maintain the data records properly. Defining personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation is very vast. It can be genetic data, personal data like name, address and so on, even the IP address can be seen as personal data. Simply put, anything that can eventually be used to identify a person and their location can be signalled as personal data, and it’s something that you have to take into consideration as much as possible for the best results.

Why do businesses need to follow it (danger of punishments)?

If you’re a business in the US, be it cloud storage company or a digital product seller that captures customer data, you need to comply with the GDPR. The thing to note here is the General Data Protection Regulation unifies all European rules on data protection. The system itself is creating safeguards to ensure future data design is a lot more secure and without any possible issues that can eventually appear all the time. Also, companies are encouraged to invest more in data protection.

This is great for branding because it shows that you are focused on customer protection and that certainly helps quite a lot in a situation like this. But obviously the main reason why you need to stay compliant is that there are many fines that you will have to deal with in case you’re not obeying these rules.

A thing to keep in mind here is that fines are not standardized, they can be issued on a personalized situation according to the problem. Severe violations can be fined with up to 4% of the company’s global turnover or up to 20 million Euros, whichever comes first.

Even the less severe violations will be fined up to 10 million Euros or 2% of the global turnover. The main problem right now is that all these fines are already in effect. So if a business is not compliant, they are definitely going to deal with some major problems, and that’s something to keep in mind. Not only is it bad for business to not obey the General Data Protection Regulation, but you will also get fined. And even customers will end up not trusting you as much in a situation like this. Understanding the true benefits and challenges that come with the General Data Protection Regulation is extremely important for any type of company.

What do businesses need to do in order to be GDPR compliant?

The first thing you want to do is to read the General Data Protection Regulation and see exactly what it covers. It focuses on concepts like the ones listed above, data processor and controller, personal data and data subjects. The GDPR focuses on all of them. Once you read these, you will see that investing in a better and more professional data storage system will be a pivotal aspect.

Once you do that, you also want to evaluate your services, providers and tools according to the GDPR requirements. Another thing that you can do is to understand how all your data is moving through the entire organization. You also want to check the privacy policy and ensure that it’s up to date. People want to know how their data is processed, so you want to update the policy according to the General Data Protection Regulation rules as quickly as you can.

Of course, you also need to train your employees adequately. You want to be certain that they know how to process data according to the General Data Protection Regulation. You also need to be fully transparent with the users that share their information. Configure the consent methods to ensure people share their consent when they are giving you information.

You also want to design a data breach reporting mechanism that will notify you right away if there are any problems. Bring in internal procedures according to the privacy policies and GDPR. You also want to update the employee and supplier contracts. Making organizational changes to improve the way you are handling all your data is crucial, and that’s something you may want to consider as quickly as possible.

Some website adjustments are in order too. You want the opt-in forms to show that clearly show the user’s consent to share their data. You also need to adapt the cookie consent too, just to be safe. It will help a lot and it will eliminate many of the possible challenges that can arise.

Aside from that, you have other important aspects to consider here like data transfer disclosure, protecting child data, working with a data protection officer if needed and making data protection impact assessment. It’s a very complex process, but one that can end up being very rewarding.

How GDPR compliance is applied to cloud storage, what do cloud storages have to do in order to be GDPR compliant?

How can you know that a cloud storage company is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation? There are many things you need to consider in a situation like this. If you are a business owner in this field, you need to make sure that people get access to all their data at any given time. They also need to see what was changed, when was changed and so on. Having access to a data log is a crucial aspect to take into consideration.

Offering secure emails is also very important. This makes it a lot harder for third parties to hack their way in. centralizing data security is also very important. Of course, encrypting access to all centralized data is crucial and it’s important to keep it that way. A cloud storage that provides zero-knowledge privacy is certainly going to be in line with GDPR.

Best GDPR Compliant Cloud Storage

Nowadays, every business that operates and/or has customers in the EU needs to be GDPR compliant. A cloud storage is a service that serves people globally, including European residents and as such has to be GDPR compliant.

You should look at our Top 10 Cloud Storage Providers list to find the best GDPR compliant cloud storage.

Conclusion

The General Data Protection Regulation is extremely important to follow, as it comes with some severe penalties. But not only that, this is a regulation that helps protect your customers, and that’s the main reason why you need to abide it. There are some major penalties related to it, true, but the fact that you can improve your service and assure customers that they will be safe is extremely important. People always want to avoid data breaches and they want to keep their data safe. With the right cloud service that’s GDPR focused, customers get to have the support and help they want. So, if you have a cloud storage business, it’s very important to optimize it for the General Data Protection Regulation! As a customer, we’re always looking for the best and secure services, so the GDPR compliance offers a major advantage.

What are your thoughts on the best GDPR compliant cloud storages? Let us know down below!