GDPR Consulting

At Red Clover Advisors, we offer comprehensive GDPR consulting services to help businesses achieve and maintain compliance with the regulation. Our services include:

Under Article 5 of the GDPR, organizations must adhere to key principles like lawfulness, fairness, transparency, data minimization, accuracy, and accountability. Red Clover Advisors evaluates your privacy framework against these principles by:

• Benchmarking Practices: Auditing your compliance with GDPR requirements, including Articles 24 (Responsibility of the Controller) and Privacy Notices and Privacy Rights.
• Identifying Gaps: Highlighting deficiencies in meeting Article 30’s requirements to maintain Records of Processing Activities (ROPAs) or ensuring Article 25’s requirements for data protection by design and by default are met.
• Action Plan: Delivering a prioritized remediation roadmap to address gaps, ensuring ongoing compliance with the GDPR’s overarching principles.

This service helps establish a foundation for a robust and GDPR-compliant privacy program.

The GDPR’s detailed obligations span multiple areas of business operations. Red Clover provides expertise in operationalizing compliance, specifically:

• Appointment of a Data Protection Officer (DPO): As required by Article 37 for organizations engaged in large-scale data processing or monitoring, Red Clover advises on when and how to appoint a DPO, responsibilities and requirements, and even support in the hiring process. In addition, our PrivacyOPS® Managed Services team can augment your team to meet your resource needs.
• Legal Bases for Processing: Ensuring compliance with Article 6 by identifying and documenting lawful bases for processing personal data, such as consent, contract performance, or legitimate interests.
• Cross-Border Data Transfers: Assisting with mechanisms for lawful data transfers outside the EU/EEA per Chapter V, including the implementation of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or reliance on adequacy decisions.

This support ensures that all facets of your operations adhere to the GDPR’s stringent requirements, reducing the risk of penalties under Article 83.

The GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive (Directive 2002/58/EC) mandate that consent for cookies must meet the criteria outlined in Article 7, including being freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Red Clover helps with:

• Designing Consent Mechanisms: Deploying compliant cookie banners and settings that adhere to Article 7’s standards and Recital 32’s requirements for explicit action (e.g., opt-ins).
• Recording Consent: Implementing systems to document and manage user consents as required under the accountability principle (Article 5(2)).
• Auditing Compliance: Regularly reviewing cookie policies to ensure they remain compliant with GDPR updates and supervisory authority guidance.

By aligning your consent practices with GDPR, Red Clover ensures transparency and user trust in your data collection activities.

A detailed data inventory is critical for meeting Article 30 requirements for maintaining ROPAs and fulfilling data subject rights under Chapter III. Red Clover supports your organization by:

• Mapping Data Flows: Creating an inventory that identifies data controllers, processors, and the purposes of processing.
• Purpose Specification and Minimization: Ensuring compliance with Article 5(1)(b) and (c) by documenting the specific purposes for data use and avoiding unnecessary data collection.
• Facilitating Rights Requests: Enabling efficient responses to Articles 15–22, such as rights to access, rectification, and erasure.

This process helps demonstrate accountability, a core principle of the GDPR.

GDPR gives individuals extensive control over their personal data. Red Clover designs systems to manage these rights effectively:

• Right of Access (Article 15): Implementing workflows to provide transparent access to personal data upon request.
• Right to Rectification (Article 16): Establishing processes to correct inaccurate data promptly.
• Right to Erasure (Article 17): Developing systems to securely delete data when no longer needed, subject to exceptions outlined in Article 17(3).
• Right to Data Portability (Article 20): Facilitating structured, machine-readable data exports for individuals.

Red Clover ensures your organization respects and enforces these rights, aligning with the GDPR’s emphasis on individual autonomy.

Transparency is a cornerstone of GDPR (Article 12). Privacy notices must clearly outline how and why data is collected and processed. Red Clover helps by:

• Creating GDPR-Compliant Notices: Covering requirements in Articles 13 and 14, including data collection purposes, legal bases, retention periods, and recipients of personal data.
• Simplifying Complex Information: Ensuring notices are concise and written in clear, plain language, as required by Recital 39.
• Maintaining Dynamic Compliance: Updating notices to reflect changes in processing activities or regulatory interpretations.

This builds user trust and ensures compliance with GDPR’s transparency obligations.

Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) are required under Article 35 for processing activities likely to result in high risks to individuals’ rights and freedoms. Red Clover provides:

• Risk Assessments: Identifying risks related to new technologies, automated processing, or large-scale data handling.
• Mitigation Plans: Proposing measures to reduce risk and documenting these for accountability.
• Regulator Consultation: Advising on when to consult supervisory authorities under Article 36 for high-risk processing.

Conducting DPIAs demonstrates your organization’s commitment to protecting data subjects’ rights and complying with GDPR.

Training programs are essential to ensure staff understand GDPR obligations. Red Clover offers:

• Role-Based Training: Tailored to meet the needs of different teams, from executives to IT staff, focusing on their specific GDPR responsibilities.
• Breach Response Training: Educating employees on handling breaches in compliance with Articles 33 and 34.
• Cultural Integration: Promoting a privacy-first culture to ensure GDPR principles are embedded in everyday operations.

This reduces the likelihood of human error and ensures organization-wide GDPR readiness.

Article 32 of the GDPR mandates appropriate technical and organizational measures to secure personal data. Red Clover helps organizations by:

• Implementing Security Measures: Advising on encryption, pseudonymization, and access controls to protect data.
• Breach Preparedness: Establishing notification protocols to meet the 72-hour reporting requirement in Articles 33 and 34.
• Conducting Audits: Regular assessments to identify vulnerabilities and ensure continuous improvement in security practices.

This protects data from unauthorized access, ensuring compliance with GDPR’s integrity and confidentiality principles.

Article 28 requires controllers to ensure their processors comply with GDPR obligations. Red Clover supports with:

• Vendor Assessments: Evaluating processors for GDPR compliance, including data handling practices.
• Data Processing Agreements (DPAs): Drafting agreements to define responsibilities and ensure compliance with Articles 28(3) and 29.
• Ongoing Monitoring: Establishing systems to regularly assess third-party data handling.

This protects your organization from liability arising from non-compliant vendors.

AI systems must comply with GDPR’s requirements on automated decision-making (Article 22). Red Clover provides:

• Impact Analysis: Assessing whether AI systems comply with transparency and fairness principles (Recitals 71 and 72).
• Bias Mitigation: Testing systems to avoid discriminatory outcomes that could violate GDPR’s equality standards.
• Documentation and Oversight: Ensuring robust audit trails for AI decisions, as required by accountability principles.

By implementing these measures, Red Clover helps organizations integrate AI ethically and lawfully under GDPR.