For the person who has to sign, GDPR certification is a phrase that gets searched by two people: the one who wants a definition for a memo and the one who has to sign an attestation about it next quarter. This page is written for the second. For a business processing personal data of people in the EU, GDPR certification comes down to a record and a set of figures: the record is the record of processing, the processor agreements, the lawful bases and the requests handled, kept with an owner, a date and a status; the figures are the evidence load that record puts on its reviewers, the days an audit of it takes, the gaps an audit will find and what they cost, the incidents and cases it produces, and the training it requires. The sections below explain GDPR certification in those terms, say what it is not, and show where the free sheets on this site work each figure from the program's own numbers with no account.
What GDPR certification means in practice
For a business processing personal data of people in the EU, it means being able to show, for each obligation, which control satisfies it, what evidence proves the control operated, who reviewed the evidence and who attested to the result. The record is the record of processing, the processor agreements, the lawful bases and the requests handled. The regulator's own material, linked below, says what the obligations are; this site publishes none of that and no legal advice. What it publishes is the arithmetic: the obligations register sheet turns the count of obligations, controls and evidence items into reviewer hours and the months to a full attestation.
The figures behind GDPR compliance costs
Evidence items and reviewer hours; audit samples, days and coverage; expected gaps, remediation hours and cost; incident hours; case backlog months; training seats outstanding. Each is a free sheet on this site and each computes from the program's own inputs. For GDPR the sheet to start with is the GDPR data-mapping sheet, which works the figure a business processing personal data of people in the EU is examined on first. A program that knows those numbers has stopped estimating its own compliance.
There is no GDPR certificate either, and what Article 42 allows
The regulation does provide for certification mechanisms, seals and marks, and it is careful about what they are worth. Article 42 says certification is voluntary and available through a transparent process, and that a certification does not reduce the responsibility of the controller or the processor for compliance with the regulation, nor affect the powers of the supervisory authority. So a mark is evidence that somebody assessed a defined set of processing at a point in time. It is not a defense, it is not a certificate of compliance with the whole regulation, and a vendor presenting one as either is overselling it.
Why the search is GDPR certification
The words in GDPR certification are the words a business processing personal data of people in the EU uses when the obligation has a name and the program does not yet have a number. The name is the regulator's, linked below; the number is the program's own, and it is the count of obligations, controls and evidence items behind GDPR turned into reviewer hours on the obligations register sheet and into audit days on the audit scope sheet. A program that searches GDPR certification and comes away with those two figures has done the first day of the work, and the paid plan on this site keeps what follows: the record, with owners, dates and the attestation that closes each period.
What GDPR certification is not
It is not a certificate, a piece of software or a consultant's memo, although all three are sold under the name. It is a record and the figures that follow from it, kept by the business that owes the obligations. The guide this page supports covers scoping regulatory compliance consulting from the register, the help a small business buys around that record. Attestvio Pro keeps the record at one flat price; the sheets are free with no account.
Questions people ask about GDPR certification
What is GDPR compliance certification?
For a business processing personal data of people in the EU: keeping the record of processing, the processor agreements, the lawful bases and the requests handled as a record with an owner, a date and a status, and being able to show for each obligation the control, the evidence and the attestation. The regulator's own material, linked below, defines the obligations; the free sheets on this site work the arithmetic.
Who is responsible for GDPR certification in a small business?
The compliance officer, or the owner wearing that hat, who signs the attestation. The sheets on this site are written for that person and need no account.
Does Attestvio make a business compliant with GDPR?
No. The business meets the obligations; Attestvio keeps the record and works the figures, and publishes no rule and no advice. Counsel and the regulator's own material say what the obligations are.