Data Protection In Europe

Partner With Datahub Consulting to Build Your Data Protection Strategy

Protecting Your Data, Empowering Your Business

At Datahub Consulting, we specialise in global data protection compliance, with a dedicated division focused on European data protection. Our team helps businesses navigate complex laws, implement robust data governance frameworks, and ensure cross-border compliance. Data Protection is not just regulations and policies, it about implementing a privacy first approach and projecting customer trust.

We help businesses across Europe, the UK, and Switzerland achieve compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK Data Protection Act 2018, and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP). Compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines, it’s about building trust, protecting your reputation, and unlocking growth opportunities in a data - driven world.

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Data Protection Laws in Europe

The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) applies to all 27 European Union (EU) member states and the three non-EU countries within the European Economic Area (EEA). Additionally, non-EU countries like the United Kingdom and Switzerland have enacted their own data protection law and is considered “adequate” by the EU for data transfers, effectively aligning with GDPR principles.

EU Members with EU GDPR Enacted

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

EEA Members (Non-EU) with EU GDPR Enacted

Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway.

EU Adequacy Decisions

Countries where the European Commission has recognised “adequate” data protection, allowing data to flow freely from the EU/EEA without extra safeguards, similar to GDPR.
Andorra, Argentina, Canada (commercial orgs), Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, New Zealand, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

Datahub Consulting are experts in all the data protection laws within the EU / EEA region and can support customers with these laws.

Our Data Protection Services

We understand that not all organisations are the same. Datahub can take on all, or some of the data protection tasks to ensure compliance.

Document Creation / Review

Yearly document reviews are essential to maintaining compliance. Using Datahub, documents will be reviewed by data engineers and legal experts

Auditing

Datahub can undertake a detailed independent audit by qualified auditors. An audit report will be produced with remedial actions where necessary

Risk Analysis

Data Compliance is based around risks to the data of the data subjects. Datahub can support with gaps analysis, risk assessments, and impact analysis to help your organisation manage and mitigate an risk.

Data Protection Officer Services

Having DPO Services through Datahub are a cost-effective way to have DPO support. Not all data protection laws require organisations to have a DPO but having a DPO through Datahub has many benefits. See our DPO Services.

DPO Services

Training

Training of staff and leadership team is key to maintaining compliance. We travel globally to clients offices to conduct training. We can also provide remote training or create a video library of training specific to your organisation.

Record of Processing Activity (ROPA)

Maintaining a Record of Processing is required with many of the laws that we specialise in. Datahub can support on creating, maintaining, and advising of ROPA

Dedicated Data Protection Expert

With Datahub you will get a dedicated Data Protection Expert. All of our compliance experts are certified and have years of experience working with global clients

Data Protection Legal Services

Legal Services to review documents and to advise on legislation

Data Mapping

Mapping the flow of personal data is essential for data compliance so that organisations understand the flow data processing through the organisation.

Why Choose Datahub Consulting as Your Data Protection Partner

Organisations can out source their data protection responsibility to Datahub Consulting working as your compliance partner. Or we can provide additional support to your existing data protection team.

Datahub have Global reach with local expertise.
Privacy first approach to make sure that your compliance framework is embedded in the business.
Results-focused compliance customised for the EU / UK GDPR that can be implemented into any industry.
Proven expertise in navigating the complexities of data protection challenges. We have worked with small start-up organisations to large enterprise global entities.
Our team is made up of legal and risk management experts that have worked in data protection for many years. Coupled with Data Engineers that can make technical recommendations to your IT team.
Certified professionals. We have certified Data Protection professionals and auditors that have implemented GDPR projects and data protection frameworks to global organisations . Also as trainers we have delivered EU GDPR training for UK based organisations and training providers.
Our services provide a flexible DPO‑as‑a‑Service packages that scale from startup to enterprise businesses that suit all budgets.
End‑to‑end capability. Legal experts, risk management, process design, IT security, and change management.

Why Datahub Consulting are Different?

Datahub are not like most data protection providers. Our data protection services comprises of three core areas all working together to provide a complete one stop data protection service.

Legal Services
Risk Management
Data Engineering / IT Security

Most data protection consultancies are a legal or risk management based organisation. These have their place in data protection, but Datahub Consulting also have the technical IT knowledge that form the link between data protection and IT security. This is key to any data protection framework as IT security risks can lead to data protection breaches. Globally Datahub have supported large organisations working with their IT security teams and implementing a data protection frameworks that are compliant with multi-region data protection laws.

The combination of the three ensures we have the knowledge of the regulations, coupled with the risk management to identify and mitigate any risks to the data subject, and the technical knowledge to adviser on any implementation.

Legal Services

Data protection is a legal obligation. Our legal experts monitor the legal text of the data protection laws, advise on any changes, and implement the articles into the framework. Our legal experts navigating complex regulations, drafting and reviewing policies, handling data breaches, managing cross-border data transfers, support governance and accountability.

Risk Management

Risk management is crucial in data protection because it provides a structured approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential threats to sensitive information. Data protection is a continual improvement process. Risk management is not a one-time activity, it’s an ongoing process. Regular assessments help adapt to evolving threats, technologies, and regulatory requirements.

Data Engineers

As Datahub are a data consultancy we have data engineers that are Microsoft certified and have a background in data security and development of cloud applications. For this reason we have a deep knowledge of IT security and can work with you IT teams to ensure that the data protection and IT security are aligned, and complement each other.

How to Ensure Data Compliance

Datahub can advise on this in more detail in an initial conversation as this is a large topic. We would be able to advise based on your industry, geographic locations, and size of business.

But for any organisation who have not considered data compliance before, then Datahub have a framework that we use to assess, implement, and test for compliance. Data Compliance is the responsibility of the organisation to prove compliance. With Datahub’s compliance framework that can be demonstrated through process logs and audit documents.

For any organisation that is not sure if they meet data compliance requirements then Datahub can undertake an initial audit to identify levels of compliance, and areas that would need addressing. For these areas then we would propose in the audit report remedial actions that can be used in a compliance action plan.

Our Service at a glance

EU GDPR compliance consulting for EU businesses of all sizes.
UK Data Protection Act 2018 advisory and UK GDPR alignment.
Swiss nFADP compliance support.
Privacy First approach (Privacy by Design).
Advise on cross border data transfer outside of the EU borders, including Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) and EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
Data Protection Officer (DPO) as a Service.
Employee training and awareness programmes either as face to face training or video library.
Audits conducted by certified compliance auditors.

Data protection tailored to Europe.

Take your data protection to the next level.

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Frequently Asked Questions

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament became law in 2018. At the time, the UK was one of 28 EU countries that implemented the law as the data protection regulation for their country.

With Brexit the UK separated from the EU and was therefore responsible for implementing its own data protection law. The UK implemented the “Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018)” which is similar in context to the EU GDPR. The UK has tight data protection laws, same as the EU. In doing so the EU adequacy decisions apply.

From July 2023 the EU commission provided an adequacy decision to the U.S. based on the Executive Order (EO) 14086 issues by President Biden. As part of this decision there has been a framework put in place by the U.S. Department of Commerce to support cross border transfers. This framework will allow U.S. based companies to facilitate cross border transfers in compliance with EU law. For this to work the company will need to self-certify participation in the EU – US Data Privacy Framework. Datahub Consulting can work with any U.S. company to provide advise and support with participation in the framework. We can also advise any EU, UK, or Swiss company when there is a data processor in the U.S. and wanting to transfer data containing personal information to the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Commerce website states:
“To participate, companies must self-certify and publicly commit to comply with the EU-U.S. DPF Principles, which are enforceable under U.S. law.”
https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2023/07/data-privacy-framework-program-launches-new-website-enabling-us

The answer to this is No. Any business that processes the data of data subjects are required to provide the necessary safeguards to protect the personal data. Data subjects are not only customers, but also employees. If you employ staff your HR team will hold personal information of those employees like name, date of birth, National Insurance number, visa details (if applicable), bank account details etc. All of these are considered as personal information.

Please note that in the UK if you process personal information the business needs to register and pay a fee to the UK supervisory Authority, ICO (Information Commissioners Office). Please use the ICO Fee Checker to understand the tier band and the fee that would be applicable to your business.

This will vary from one company to another. Initially with any data protection implementation there will be a gap analysis where Datahub will assess the gaps and what will need to be achieved for compliance.

From the gap analysis if you want Datahub to support on any remedial actions we can advise on the estimated duration and cost. Initially the only commitment is the cost of the gap analysis, from there we will discuss the next steps.

As a high-level estimate, from our experience, for a small organisation the implementation could take approx. 3 weeks. For large enterprise organisations this could take up to 4 months.

As mentioned above this will be dependent on the work involved and will vary from company to company. The only initial commitment is for Datahub to complete a gap analysis. From this analysis we will provide a report with recommendations. At this point we can identify the cost involved.

No. At the current time there is no external assessment for certification of GDPR compliance. Organisations are required to be compliant if they process personal information of data subjects. It’s up to the organisation to be able to prove compliance with the EU GDPR or the UK Data Protection Act (2018). Having Datahub lead a data protection implementation we will provide organisations with the gap analysis report, action plan, and audit report. Together with procedures, policies, and log files, compliance would be easily demonstrated.

EU GDPR, UK Data Protection Act 2018, and several Middle Eastern data protection laws state that, not all organisations require a data protection officer.

EU GDPR Article 37 states that a controller or processor are required to designate a data protection officer when:

the processing is carried out by a public authority or body, except for courts acting in their judicial capacity;
the core activities of the controller or the processor consist of processing operations which, by virtue of their nature, their scope and/or their purposes, require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale; or
the core activities of the controller or the processor consist of processing on a large scale of special categories of data pursuant to Article 9 or personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences referred to in Article 10.

If the above does not apply, then the organisation can choose if they designate a data protection officer. In this case Datahub provide 6 data protection officer service plans that can support any organisation. These vary in services and cost but will provide all organisations with the assurance that they have an independent expert to advise.

For global organisations we would recommend a data protection officer with knowledge of the required laws. Datahub work with airlines that need to be compliant with multiple data protection laws and we have the experts that specialise in global data protection.

Find out more about our Data Protection Officer services.

For global organisations there could be multiple data protection laws to comply with. This initially sounds overwhelming, but this can easily be achieved.

The EU GDPR was one of the first laws to provide data protection for modern use of personal data. For example, mobile technology use, video recordings, AI and technology like facial recognition, finger printing etc. Countries monitored the global acceptance of GDPR, and now other countries are introducing similar laws. The U.S. have multiple laws which can be state governed. There are new laws implemented in the middle east regions, such as Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia etc.

Datahub are experts in many data protection laws and travel the world advising organisations. We would be able to create an implementation plan to comply with the applicable laws based on your office locations, geographic regions of your data subjects, and and cross boarder transfers that you may need to do.

Find out how we can help

We do not employ salespeople; our team are all experienced technical specialists that can talk you through any of our services.

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Data Protection Europe