GDPR Compliance: What It Means for Companies Working With EU Personal Data

What It Means for Companies Working With EU Personal Data

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) expanded the reach of European data-protection rules far beyond the EU’s borders. Any organization — European or not — that collects or processes personal data belonging to EU residents must comply. While the regulation brings unified standards across EU member states, it also introduces a strict compliance framework and the possibility of substantial fines of up to 4% of global annual revenue for violations.

When GDPR Applies

GDPR requirements come into force whenever the data controller (the organization deciding how personal data is used), the data processor (the organization handling data on the controller’s behalf), or the data subject (the individual whose data is being processed) has a connection to the EU.

Importantly, the regulation also applies to companies located outside the EU if they collect, store, or otherwise handle personal data of EU residents. The term “personal data” covers a very wide range of information — from names and email addresses to photos, social media activity, medical details, financial identifiers, and even device IP addresses.

The Challenge for External Development Teams

Many European businesses work with software developers located abroad. While this cooperation brings clear advantages, GDPR creates an additional responsibility: developers outside the EU generally cannot access real personal data of EU users. To keep client projects running smoothly and securely, we use a workflow that protects personal information while allowing development work to continue efficiently.

Our GDPR-Aligned Development Model

To ensure that development teams can support European clients without risking data-protection breaches, we follow a controlled and transparent process:

1. Production environments are hosted within the EU or UK, with strict access limitations.

2. Staging environments are also located in the EU or UK. These environments are used for testing new features before deploying them to production.

3. Together with the client, we identify all database fields that can be used to directly or indirectly identify a person.

4. A dedicated script is created to copy the production database to the staging server and anonymize all personal data. Developers then work exclusively with anonymized records and internal IDs.

5. Local or EU/UK-based development environments rely on anonymized staging data if debugging is required.

6. We use fully automated deployments to both staging and production environments, eliminating the need for developer access to live servers.

7. In situations where server-level intervention is necessary, a DevOps specialist located within the EU/UK region handles it.

This approach ensures that development teams can work effectively, while EU user data remains protected and fully compliant with GDPR standards.