Article content
Guardtime is pleased to announce VOLTA, its KSI blockchain based solution that has been developed for managing personal data in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
“Guardtime’s VOLTA product presents a path to GDPR certification that really stands out in today’s marketplace” Michael J Morrissey, President & CEO International Insurance Society.
General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)In December 2016, the EU Parliament and Council agreed upon the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to go into effect on May 25, 2018. These regulations introduce tough new legal requirements for companies relating to privacy and data protection of the personal data owned by EU individuals.
Although many companies have already adopted privacy processes and procedures consistent with existing privacy directives, GDPR contains a number of legal requirements and new protections for EU data subjects and threatens significant fines and penalties for non-compliant data controllers and processors once it comes into force.
“With solid common standards for data protection, people can be sure they are in control of their personal information. And they can enjoy all the services and opportunities of a Digital Single Market.”Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for EU DSM.
With new obligations on such matters as data subject consent, citizens’ rights, data anonymization, breach notification, trans-border data transfers, continuous monitoring and documentation, and appointment of data protection officers, to name a few, the GDPR requires companies handling EU citizens’ data to undertake major operational reform to ensure continued legal processing of personal data.
VOLTA – a Solution for GDPRGuardtime has received many similar comments from leading institutions relating to GDPR. While there was a developing market in advisory services relating to GDPR, once an initial risk assessment had been taken, there was a noticeable lack of solutions on offer that give a clear path for a company to become GDPR compliant.
Taking the viewpoint that the management of personal data is another example of a problem space where innovative data management technology could be used, Guardtime has developed VOLTA, its solution for GDPR.
“Many vendors will offer risk assessments and advisory guidelines – Guardtime is the first to offer a complete software solution. Our solution is the answer for organizations that are wrestling with GDPR and need a fast pragmatic solution that works with legacy systems and meets an acceptable minimum from EU regulators. Mike Gault, CEO of Guardtime.
VOLTA is designed to support the rigorous governance and compliance processes for managing personally identifiable information (PII), targeted by GDPR.
Today, personal data is typically held on many disparate systems and affects multiple workflows (i.e. applications, processes, and services). Integrating these disparate systems is a major challenge for tracking PII use. VOLTA takes a pragmatic approach to integration: firstly, by supporting a wide range of interfaces for integration, and secondly by enabling a user-defined extendible interface for company policies.
All GDPR events associated with PII across the organization (i.e. consent, access, modification, copy etc.) are tracked in VOLTA and anchored in the KSI blockchain.