European Union data protection. Data protection, binary code with European Union flag

 

In anticipation of the European Union's May 2018 implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), technology companies have begun changing their privacy policies and the way they design products. But the seeing an opportunity for compliance technology and services, legal organizations have also started offering products to help clients meet the regulation's strict mandates.

Ireland-based law firm McCann FitzGerald recently launched its GDPR Gap Analysis Application, which acts as an assessment tool for organizations. Built with an AI-engine supplied by Neota Logic as part of a long term development agreement, the app assesses an organization's GDPR compliance level by asking a series of questions. Adam Finlay, partner at McCann FitzGerald, explained that the questions “are all phrased to glean 'yes' or 'no' or multiple choice answers.”

But this is not a simple rules-based question and answer compliance tool. Tom Connor, the firm's investigations technical specialist, noted that the app's Neota engine is “inference ending,” meaning that the system “has a capability of understanding permutations moving forward and permutations in this review mirror, in order to determine what it should provide next to get to a conclusion.”

Essentially then, “as you work through the questions, depending on the answers you give, further questions will pop up with more relevance” to your specific situation, Finlay said. He added that the questions “evolve as you are filling in your responses.”

Once all questions are completed, the app displays an organization's level of compliance with the GDPR through numeric scores around a variety of GDPR mandates. Questions are weighted differently during calculations. After the scores are generated, the app provides a transcript of all the questions and answers, as well as detailed “analysis report” for recommendations on how to improve compliance.

McCann FitzGerald's app is far from the only GDPR assessment app on the market. Law firms Orrick and Hogan Lovells, as well as tech companies like TRUSTe, OneTrust, and PrivacyCheq offer similar assessment tools.

But Finlay believes that such competitor apps “are not as sophisticated in terms of the technology” and scoring as McCann FitzGerald's app. Moreover, he sees these apps as “narrower in focus” and lacking in the level of expertise an Ireland-based law firm can bring to a GDPR compliance tool.

“Some of them don't have the nuance in terms of understanding the regulation and handling the regulation that, in my experience, a European [law firm] brings.”

Karyn Harty, partner at McCann FitzGerald, noted that the development of the app was done in-house through the firm's research and development team, which is made up of members that are both software developers and “people with law degrees” in order to make sure the app was designed as accurately as possible.

Still, despite the level of expertise a firm and its attorneys may have on the GDPR, translating that all of knowledge into an assessment tool can be a near impossible endeavor. Given the complexity and the potential fluidity of the GDPR, for example, there is only so much precision such an app is able to offer. Finlay noted that there is “a grey area to how binding some of [the GDPR] guidance is” and that regulators may change how the regulation will be enforced in the months to come.