Introduction

The European Union has taken a monumental step in protecting the fundamental right to privacy for every EU resident with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be effective from May 25, 2018. Simply put, EU residents will now have greater say over what, how, why, where, and when their personal data is used, processed, or disposed. This rule clarifies how the EU personal data laws apply even beyond the borders of the EU. Any organization that works with EU residents’ personal data in any manner, irrespective of location, has obligations to protect the data.

How is Ashay preparing for GDPR?

We have put in place a dedicated internal team to drive our organization to meet the GDPR requirements. Some of our ongoing initiatives are:

• Identifying personal data – Defining the what, where, and how data is stored.
• Providing visibility and transparency – The most important aspect of GDPR is how the collected data is used. As a data processor, Zoho’s key role is to provide our customers (the data controllers) with the access to effectively manage and protect their user data. Zoho is exploring ways to make optimal product enhancements without compromising on performance so that we can provide better transparency to our customers.
• Enhancing data integrity and security – Data privacy and data security are two sides of the same coin. As our customers tighten their data security measures, Zoho would like to extend a helping hand. We’re streamlining the processes for our cloud applications by implementing IT policies and procedures that provide end-to-end security.
• Portability and transferability of data – GDPR gives end users the right to either receive all the data provided and processed by the controller or transfer it to another controller depending on technical feasibility. With this new right in mind, Zoho is working on further enhancing its data exporting capabilities to enable export even at the individual level.

What does this mean for our customers?

We understand that meeting the GDPR requirements will take a lot of time and effort. And as your partner, we want to help you make your process as seamless as possible, so that you don’t have to worry about compliance and can focus more on running your business. Some of our product enhancements are about to make it easier for you to:

• Provide access controls
• Encrypt, anonymize or delete user data
• Perform data audits or assessments using data processing logs
• Create provisions for data subjects rights
• Enhance security for user data