David Goyette, Our Secret Weapon for GDPR Compliance

GDPR is coming and will affect many unprepared organizations in its wake. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), going into effect May 25, 2018, will require compliance from any organization established in the European Union or when doing business with EU citizens.

According to a recent Solix Technology study — conducted between October and December 2017 with IT professionals at more than 100 companies — 65% of organizations are unable to comply with GDPR or unsure whether an individual’s personal information is purged from all systems forever, and 22% are unaware they must comply with GDPR, even if they are based outside of the European Union (EU), but hold the data of EU citizens.

At Introhive, we’ve been preparing for GDPR over the past year and believe that organizations will adopt our solutions in order to help them be prepared. We see GDPR as a market opportunity and will continue to embrace these new data privacy and security regulations. To help us in our efforts, we are pleased to announce and welcome our new team member, David Goyette, who has rejoined the Introhive team as General Counsel and Data Protection Officer.

“We’re excited to have David back as he was originally instrumental in aligning our privacy policy with Canadian data privacy compliance (PIPEDA) and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). As a lawyer who is a Certified Information Privacy Professional in European privacy law (CIPP/E), David’s knowledge and expertise will be invaluable in helping Introhive maintain compliance with GDPR, as well as advising Introhive’s growing customer base of multinational organizations on strategies to maintain compliance,” says Jody Glidden, Introhive’s CEO.

David has a proven track record in leading data protection initiatives, training employees on best practices, and educating the organization on data privacy and policy, making him an invaluable asset to our team.

Read on to learn more about GDPR compliance, David’s approach to data protection, and how it will impact your organization.

The GDPR isn’t just a privacy law for companies in the EU. If any part of your business has connections to Europe, you will likely need to be GDPR compliant.

“Any organization that operates in the European Union or controls, processes, or monitors data of EU citizens will require help and partnership to ensure they comply with this comprehensive data privacy regulation to avoid incurring hefty fines for noncompliance,” David says. “Introhive works with some of the largest and most innovative multinational brands in the legal and professional services industries, and they are all dealing with the impending data regulations set forth by GDPR in Europe.”

Countless companies will be affected, and odds are that includes you. This means you need to do all you can to stay compliant and avoid sizeable fines.

“GDPR fines are up to €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is greater,” David explains.

If you think GDPR doesn’t apply to your organization, you may want to think again. The result could be costly if you’re wrong.

An Opportunity, Not a Burden

In David’s experience, many organizations see compliance as a burden. It’s something you have to do, not something you necessarily want to do. David wants to change this outlook for both Introhive and Introhive customers.

“GDPR compliance is going to take effort, but we need to see this regulation as an opportunity. We need to welcome and embrace GDPR, because the law provides a level of certainty and security around data protection,” David says.

Being compliant with GDPR has benefits — it’s not all about the taxing process of adhering to regulation. Instead, companies need to focus on what they will gain. For example, companies will experience better data security, reduced liability, enhanced customer trust, and greater peace of mind knowing they are respecting the rights of the data subjects whose data they are controlling or processing.

Securing Your Data

“At Introhive, we are vigilant on being compliant with GDPR and all privacy laws that apply to us and our clients. We see the GDPR as the high-water mark that we must meet and exceed. With the GDPR as our standard, we can rest assured that we are compliant in the EU and are likely compliant, or very near compliant, in most jurisdictions where we do business. This provides a great deal of certainty in a growing area of the law that was in flux for many years,” David shares.

And while we protect things on our end, we’re also taking strides to help our customers follow compliance best practices as well.

As David says: “While we can’t ensure our clients are compliant across all of their data privacy initiatives, we can ensure that Introhive and our sub-processors are compliant in order to mitigate risk for the organizations we support.”

Under David’s guidance, our customers can rest easy knowing they have one less data concern come May 25 when GDPR goes into effect.

Data Protection Is Our Standard

At Introhive, our goal is to provide our customers with peace of mind and assurance as it relates to their data privacy concerns. With over a decade of experience in directing compliance-focused data protection, an MBA, a law degree, and a CIPP/E, David is our key to making data privacy a standard business process.

Along with David, we’re embracing GDPR. If you plan to do the same, make sure your firm has these four things for GDPR compliance.