GDPR applies to any organization processing EU residents' personal data - regardless of where the organization is headquartered. Canadian companies with EU customers, EU employees, or EU-facing products face GDPR obligations, with penalties up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue.
Organizations must implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure security appropriate to the risk - including pseudonymization, encryption, ongoing confidentiality and integrity of processing systems, and ability to restore availability after incidents. This is the primary technical security obligation in GDPR.
Personal data breaches must be reported to the supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware. The report must include categories of data affected, approximate number of data subjects, likely consequences, and measures taken or proposed. Lavawall® continuous monitoring supports rapid breach discovery and the 72-hour reporting requirement.
Privacy and security controls must be embedded into systems from the design stage, built in from the start afterward. New technology projects, product launches, and system changes trigger data protection by design requirements - directly linking to Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) obligations.
DPIAs are mandatory for processing likely to result in high risk to individuals - including large-scale processing of sensitive data, systematic monitoring, or use of new technologies. ThreeShield delivers DPIAs that satisfy GDPR Article 35 requirements.
Organizations using third-party processors (cloud providers, SaaS vendors, analytics platforms) must have Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) in place that specify security obligations. Processor compliance is the data controller's responsibility.
Transferring personal data outside the EU/EEA requires appropriate safeguards - Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), adequacy decisions, or Binding Corporate Rules. Canadian organizations processing EU data must ensure their data handling satisfies transfer mechanism requirements.
Canadian organizations with EU customers increasingly face GDPR, Canada's upcoming Bill C-27 (CPPA), and Quebec's Law 25 simultaneously. The three frameworks share common logic - meaningful consent, data minimization, security safeguards, breach notification - but differ in specific requirements and penalty regimes. ThreeShield maps all three in a single assessment to identify the most stringent requirement and build a unified compliance program, avoiding costly duplication.
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GDPR applies based on where your data subjects (users, customers, employees) are located - not where your organization is registered. If you have EU customers, EU website visitors whose data you process, EU employees, or provide services to EU organizations, GDPR very likely applies to you. Many Canadian technology companies are unaware of their GDPR obligations until an enforcement action or enterprise client due diligence questionnaire highlights the gap.
GDPR served as the model for many of the enhancements in Canada's Bill C-27 (Consumer Privacy Protection Act / CPPA) and Quebec's Law 25 - consent requirements, data subject rights, breach notification, and DPIAs all reflect GDPR's influence. Organizations that achieve GDPR compliance are well-positioned for C-27 and Law 25, though differences in specific requirements mean a separate mapping is still needed. ThreeShield delivers multi-framework privacy assessments covering GDPR, PIPEDA/C-27, and Law 25 simultaneously.
A DPO is mandatory under GDPR for public authorities, organizations conducting large-scale systematic monitoring of individuals, and organizations processing large-scale special categories of data (health, biometric, etc.). For most Canadian companies with EU customers, a DPO is not mandatory - but documenting the assessment of whether a DPO is required is itself a GDPR compliance step. ThreeShield includes DPO obligation assessment in our GDPR gap analysis.
ThreeShield's GDPR gap assessment identifies your obligations, maps security requirements under Article 32, and builds the 72-hour breach notification workflow your supervisory authority expects.
Book an AssessmentAlso covers Quebec Law 25 · PIPEDA/Bill C-27 · EU NIS2