GDPR compliance, built for businesses with EU exposure.
Businesses with European customers, employees, or data processors need a defensible GDPR posture. Uzado builds and runs yours, end to end.
GDPR is about EU data subjects, not EU offices
If you process personal data of individuals in the European Union or European Economic Area, GDPR applies regardless of where your business is located. For SaaS and services with EU customers, the question is not whether GDPR applies; it is how to comply efficiently.
The General Data Protection Regulation organises around a small set of articles that drive most of the operational work. Article 5 sets the principles: lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability. Article 6 sets the lawful bases for processing. Article 30 requires records of processing activities. Article 32 requires appropriate security of processing.
The articles that bite hardest in incident response are Article 33 (72-hour breach notification to the supervisory authority) and Article 35 (Data Protection Impact Assessments for high-risk processing). Most GDPR programme failures are not failures of intent; they are failures of preparation against those clocks. Uzado plans for them deliberately.
Different laws, overlapping work
PIPEDA covers commercial Canadian activity and applies to Canadian organisations regardless of where the data subject lives. GDPR governs anyone processing personal data of individuals in the EU and EEA, regardless of where the organisation is located. The two regimes overlap on consent and transparency, but GDPR is stricter on lawful basis, breach notification timing, DPIAs, and cross-border transfers. Most businesses with EU customers carry both, run on shared controls, and treat GDPR as the higher bar.
A complete GDPR programme for SaaS
Where you are today versus where GDPR requires you to be. Prioritised by risk and remediation cost so the work plan is defensible to leadership.
A complete record of personal data: what you collect, where it lives, who touches it, where it flows. The Article 30 record of processing activities falls out of this work.
Data Protection Impact Assessments for high-risk processing. Documented, defensible, and reviewed on a cadence that survives a regulator request.
GDPR-aligned privacy notices, internal policies, and operational procedures. Written for the people who will run them, not for a binder on a shelf.
Operational handling of access, erasure, rectification, and portability requests within the regulatory SLAs. Owners, runbooks, and audit logs included.
Vanta-powered evidence keeps your GDPR programme audit-ready year-round. Drift is caught when it happens, not at the next review.
A five-step programme, run end to end
Identify the EU and UK data subjects in your environment, the processing activities that touch their personal data, and the controllers, processors, and sub-processors involved.
Map your current state to the GDPR articles that matter for your processing. Prioritise gaps by regulatory exposure and operational risk.
Write the policies, perform the DPIAs, and stand up the DSR intake. Documented, signed, and operational on a defined cadence.
Wire Vanta to your identity, infrastructure, and ticketing systems so evidence is continuous instead of reconstructed.
Run the programme, respond to DSRs, and keep the 72-hour breach notification process drilled. Renewal is a continuation, not a project.
Best-of-breed technology partners
Common GDPR questions
Do I need GDPR if I'm a SaaS company without an EU office?+
Most likely yes. GDPR applies based on the data subject's location, not yours. If you have EU or UK customers, employees, contractors, or end users whose personal data you process, GDPR is in scope regardless of where Uzado, your servers, or your headquarters sit.
What is the difference between GDPR and PIPEDA?+
PIPEDA is Canada's federal private-sector privacy law and governs how Canadian organisations handle personal information for commercial activity. GDPR governs anyone processing personal data of individuals in the EU and EEA. They overlap on consent, transparency, and access rights, but GDPR carries stricter rules around lawful basis, breach notification, DPIAs, and cross-border transfers, and has materially larger fines.
Do I need a Data Protection Officer (DPO)?+
A DPO is mandatory only when your core activities involve large-scale systematic monitoring of data subjects or large-scale processing of special category data. Most SMBs do not meet that threshold. When they do not, Uzado's vCISO often acts as the privacy point of contact and runs the DPO-equivalent responsibilities.
How does the 72-hour breach notification rule work?+
Article 33 requires controllers to notify the supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of a personal data breach that is likely to result in risk to data subjects. Uzado runs the breach detection, severity triage, communications draft, and supervisory authority notification process so the clock is met without scrambling.
What is a DPIA, and when do we need one?+
A Data Protection Impact Assessment evaluates risks to data subjects from a specific processing activity. Article 35 requires a DPIA when processing is likely to result in high risk, including large-scale special-category data processing, systematic monitoring of public spaces, or new technology with significant privacy implications. Uzado scopes, runs, and maintains DPIAs against a defined cadence.
How does GDPR overlap with SOC 2?+
SOC 2 with the Privacy Trust Services Criterion covers a meaningful subset of GDPR requirements, but the two are not interchangeable. GDPR adds explicit lawful-basis tracking, DPIAs, the right to erasure, the 72-hour breach notification, and Article 30 records of processing. Uzado runs them on shared underlying controls so the marginal cost of carrying both is manageable.
What about UK GDPR?+
Following Brexit, the UK adopted UK GDPR, which is substantially similar to EU GDPR but operates under a separate supervisory authority (the ICO). Most businesses that need GDPR also need UK GDPR. Uzado scopes both in a single programme.
How does Vanta help with GDPR?+
Vanta integrates with your stack to collect evidence continuously and surfaces drift against GDPR-aligned controls. Combined with Uzado's runbooks for DPIAs, DSRs, and breach response, the result is a programme that demonstrates compliance with daily evidence rather than annual heroics.
Need GDPR done properly?
Book a 15-minute call. Uzado will scope your GDPR exposure, propose a programme plan, and tell you where the real risks sit.