GDPR Compliance Checklist

GDPR compliance is not optional for any organization that processes personal data of EU residents — and the penalties for getting it wrong are severe, reaching up to EUR 20 million or 4% of global annual turnover. Yet many companies, particularly startups and SMBs, struggle to understand exactly what GDPR requires of them and where their current practices fall short. This comprehensive GDPR compliance checklist translates the regulation's dense legal language into practical, actionable items that any team can work through. The checklist covers all key GDPR requirements organized into logical categories: Lawful Basis for Processing, Data Subject Rights, Data Protection by Design and Default, Data Processing Agreements, International Data Transfers, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), Breach Notification Procedures, Records of Processing Activities (ROPA), Data Protection Officer Requirements, and Employee Training. For each requirement, the template provides a clear explanation of what the regulation demands, practical examples of how to comply, a status field to track your current compliance level, and action items for closing identified gaps. What makes this checklist particularly valuable is its focus on practical implementation rather than legal theory. Instead of quoting GDPR articles verbatim, it explains what each requirement means for your day-to-day operations: how your website forms need to work, what your privacy policy must include, how to handle data subject access requests, what contracts you need with your SaaS vendors, and how to respond if you discover a data breach. For companies operating across multiple EU member states, the checklist also highlights areas where national implementations may add requirements beyond the base GDPR regulation.