Five reasons why broadcasters should select vendors that are GDPR compliant

1. Legal Compliance

Selecting GDPR-compliant streaming vendors ensures broadcasters adhere to strict data protection laws. This reduces the risk of costly fines and legal consequences for mishandling personal data, fostering a trustworthy reputation.

2. Data Security

GDPR-compliant vendors prioritise data security, implementing robust measures to protect user information. This reduces the likelihood of data breaches, safeguarding sensitive viewer data and preventing reputational damage.

3. User Trust

Compliance with GDPR demonstrates a commitment to user privacy. This fosters trust among viewers, leading to higher engagement, longer viewing times, and potentially increased revenue through ad targeting.

4. Competitive protection

Your data contains valuable information for competitors, such as your customers, geographies, programming, and advertisers. You want to prevent this data to be accessible by non-EU vendors since they can share, sell or use your data for their (AI) learning, so they can compete against you with your own data.

5. Competitive Advantage

Demonstrating GDPR compliance can be a competitive advantage. It can attract partnerships, advertisers, and viewers who prioritise data privacy, ultimately contributing to the broadcaster’s success.

The five differences between truly GDPR compliant vendors and vendors who use US owned sub-processors.

1. Data Processing Location

Truly GDPR vendors typically process and store data within the European Economic Area (EEA) or in countries that the European Commission has deemed to have adequate data protection laws. Vendors relying on US-owned services may still process data in the US, which can raise concerns due to potential conflicts with GDPR’s data transfer restrictions.

2. Legal Jurisdiction

GDPR vendors are subject to European Union (EU) data protection laws and regulations, and they are more likely to cooperate with EU data protection authorities. Vendors using US-owned services may be subject to US laws like the USA CLOUD Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, which could require them to share data with US government agencies, potentially in conflict with GDPR.

3. Data Access and Control

Truly GDPR-compliant vendors typically provide robust data access and control mechanisms to their customers, allowing them to exercise their rights under GDPR, such as data access, rectification, and deletion. Vendors relying on US-owned services may have limited control over data once it leaves the EU, making compliance with GDPR rights challenging.

4. Data Transfer Mechanisms

Vendors using US-owned services may rely on the EU-US Privacy Shield, SSC’s (Standard Contractual Clauses) or similar mechanisms that have faced and are facing legal challenges and uncertainties.

5. Transparency and Accountability

Truly GDPR-compliant vendors often have transparent privacy policies, data processing agreements, and clear accountability measures. Vendors using US-owned services may have less transparency about how data is handled outside the EU and may not be as accountable for GDPR compliance violations.

It’s essential to thoroughly assess your vendors’ data processing practices and ensure they align with GDPR requirements, especially when considering potential data transfers to non-EU jurisdictions. To make the process easier, we’ve developed a 4-step checklist that will help you determine if your vendor is completely GDPR compliant or not.

Jet-Stream has been a privacy advocate since its inception. We believe that the web should be a place to freely share creativity, but in reality the web has become a spiderweb of tracking, profiling and data breaches. We offer 100% GDPR compliant services and are audited and used by EDPS, the European Data Protection Supervisor. 

Data protection should be a fundamental part of every tender. Contact us and learn from our insights, learnings and implementations.