Privacy Product journey in 2022

As the year draws to a close, it is natural to look back over the past year. 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who is working to secure privacy data in organisations. Your work builds trust in your brand through documented processes and visibility into processing activities.

Our product team and developers have worked hard over the past year to further develop the Privacy Platform so that by the end of 2022, we will offer a solution that is effectively a completely new version compared to the same time last year.

In this post, I will take you through what I consider to be some of the most important milestones and launches in 2022.

Our overall principle for the development of our solutions is to always have the user at the centre. Therefore, it is important for us that we spend a lot of time thinking and designing flows that are intuitive and understandable. At the same time, the platform is constantly being expanded based on the feedback we receive from both customers and partners.

We have a close dialogue with our partners at Bech-Bruun. This means that we have the opportunity to test our new functions in relation to the legal aspects and thus ensure that the platform always complies with current legislation.

These principles have been a natural part of our development of the new modules I list below. In addition, there have been a large number of smaller launches, as we continuously update the platform with both small and medium-sized functions. You can keep up to date with these over on our product blog.

February 2022: Relaunch of the Privacy Platform  

As I mentioned in the introduction to this post, we relaunched the Privacy platform in February. Before this, we already had a Privacy product on the shelf, but we had come to the realisation that the best prerequisite for achieving the degree of user-friendliness and guided help in relation to GDPR documentation was to "start over". GDPR documentation was to "start from scratch". Our team of developers selected the best technical elements from the original Privacy platform, while our UX team redesigned the layout and workflows based on the feedback we gathered from our users on how to work most effectively with compliance.

Initially, we relaunched the modules: Treatment Activities and Inventory. We had a new product that could help document an organisation's work processes and have a record at hand at all times. 

However, this was only the starting point, because at that time, we already had a development roadmap ready for the next modules in the platform.

-> Read the full release article about the relaunch of the Privacy platform

March 2022: Launch of standard processing activities 

We quickly realised that when talking to existing and potential customers, there was a desire to be helped in the platform. There are different ways to help and there may be different times when you need help.

One of the areas we quickly identified was: "How to get started with your GDPR documentation". So, we introduced a series of templates of processing activities that you can use as a starting point when starting your GDPR documentation. The mindset around templates and best practices has also followed us in our further product development. 

I would be lying if I said that the templates do the work for you. Despite a good starting point, there will still be requirements for you as the person doing the documentation. Even with the best templates, you will still have to consider whether the templates are suitable for your business.

Feedback from users is positive, and it is emphasised that the templates, and the other help we add to the platform, means that they can get started faster and quickly experience value. 

April 2022: Launch of risk module 

The next big module in the Privacy platform was the Risk module. It is a natural extension of your documentation of processing activities to carry out a risk assessment of these. Here we also thought from the start that the risk assessment can be based on some best practices and therefore prepared a number of risk scenarios in collaboration with Bech-Bruun.

The risk-based approach is an important part of GDPR, but it can be a daunting task to get started with. It is therefore an area that makes good sense to system support, as Privacy can help you make natural links between your processing and your risk, while being based on some specific and "understandable" scenarios. 

-> See it now

June 2022: Launch of systems

Privacy is built around the documentation of processing activities (processes) as the foundation of your GDPR documentation. But it is clear that there is a close link to the systems used in an organisation. Therefore, it was a natural next step for us to create a system module in Privacy. You can use this to create your overview of the systems used across your organisation, manage supplier/data processor relationships and of course link to the relevant processes. 

One of the benefits I see in this module is that this way you get an overview of the same documentation - but from different angles. Do you need to see how personal data is processed in a work process, or do you need to see which personal data is processed in a specific system? Both can now be achieved, but of course without having to register the same things multiple times.  

-> Read the full release article on the launch of systems

September 2022: Free trial of Privacy 

We have always wanted to provide the opportunity to "test drive the platform" before you have to make a choice about whether the Privacy platform is the right solution for your organisation.

Therefore, we have worked to provide the opportunity for you to create a free account on your own without having to talk to one of our advisors.

This means that you can now set up a 30-day free trial of the Privacy Platform at your convenience and get started right away.

-> Create your 30-day free trial

October 2022: Launch of the Annual Wheel and task management 

In October, we hit a key milestone by launching our Yearly Wheel module.

Up until this point, the Privacy Platform had worked well for creating documentation. With the launch of the Annual Wheel, it became possible to really "energise" the operation of your GDPR documentation.

With the Wheel, it became possible to plan which activities the organisation needs to carry out during a year and who is responsible for ensuring that it is done. Now, the individual user in the platform gets an overview of the tasks they need to solve - which makes it easier for you as the responsible person to ensure that you get around all the corners in terms of remaining GDPR compliant. 

Adding the annual wheel to our Privacy platform was an important loop to tie. Me and .legal have always had an ambition that our product is one that the user wants to use. But we also realise that your GDPR platform is not necessarily the one you open every day. That's why it's important that the platform notifies you when it's time to act. This ensures that your documentation stays up-to-date and up to date and doesn't sit around gathering dust. 

I wrote a bit more about the circular calendar at the launch. and what benefits this gives you.

-> Energise your GDPR work with the Privacy Wheel and task management

November 2022: Consequences catalogue in the risk module 

I have chosen to include this one as it is a perfect example of how we are updating the platform based on feedback from you, the users of Privacy. 

In November, our Risk Module was a few months old and had been adopted by several organisations.

In the initial version of the platform, some users had difficulty accessing the rationale, especially for 'consequences'. A frequently asked question was "at what level should I justify my consequences, and what could an example of a consequence be?" 

Of course, we took this feedback on board so that we could update the risk module based on this. In collaboration with Bech-Bruun, we developed a catalogue of consequences, and we also linked the different consequences to the specific risk scenarios, so that Privacy can suggest consequences based on the risk scenario you are responding to.  

This is just one of many great examples of how we are using your feedback to further develop Privacy. I am always very excited about the feedback we receive and how engaged our users are with the platform. It is therefore always a great pleasure to be able to launch features that you have requested and that can help streamline your GDPR work.  

-> Read the release article on the consequence catalogue

December 2022: Launch of list module 

The last major launch in 2022 was our new list module. Until then, we had focused a lot on preparing documentation and ensuring that it was continuously maintained.

With the list module, we took the first step into a more reporting and overview context. With the module, you can now access a number of standard lists (e.g. of third-country transfers), but you also have the possibility to make ad hoc extractions that can give you exactly the overview you need. 

The list module offers plenty of possibilities in terms of overview and to work actively with your documentation. The area of reporting and overview is one we will work even more with during 2023.   

-> Read the release article about the list module

What about 2023? 

If we take a look into 2023, it is guaranteed to be another exciting year for .legal. We have several exciting things in store when it comes to further development of the Privacy platform, and we can't wait to introduce these to you!

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