Hungarian Watch Autumn 2018

GDPR is and will remain a hot topic for every business in the EU. VJT & Partners closely worked with the consulting software developer company Simplexxy to develop the “Data Hawk” (“Adatsólyom” in Hungarian) software. Based on its installed know-how, Data Hawk screens the data processing of the companies and makes proposals on an automated basis, without any human intervention. This revolutionary law-tech solution has never been seen before. The mid-term plan is to launch Data Hawk in other Member States also.

In this interview, János Tamás Varga, head of VJT & Partners – the law firm responsible for the content of the software – shared his experience about Data Hawk.

Could you please briefly introduce Data Hawk?

Data Hawk is a stand-alone software that provides significant help especially for small- and medium-sized Hungarian enterprises and non-profit organizations in preparing for GDPR. An online questionnaire that can be used to assess GDPR compliance readiness of businesses and get an action plan on exactly what needs to be done to meet GDPR requirements. Its main motto: “You do not have to understand GDPR. It is enough to know your own business”.

Where did the idea of the Data Hawk come from?

As a lawyer in the field of data protection, when I was in the process of adopting GDPR regulations, I realised that small- and medium-sized enterprises would certainly not be able to meet the requirements of GDPR without external assistance. Paying huge penalties would mean the end of many businesses. The idea came to me to develop a stand-alone and easy-to-use online software that comes with a full GDPR screening, yet which reaches the quality of typical GDPR audits. The one filling out the questionnaire does not have to stand in line for the advice of a privacy expert, he simply answers the questions online and Data Hawk makes proposals on an automated basis, without any human intervention.

Which areas can we examine with the Data Hawk?

Data Hawk examines dozens of areas that are problematic in terms of data protection, including the most important employment and marketing areas. There are several hundred questions in the software, and the user can choose among several predefined answers to each question. Of course, not all questions need to be answered: our questionnaire leads you – the user, according to your responses, only to those questions that are relevant to your business.

Was it a big work to create such a compliance tool?

I would call it gigantic. We processed hundreds of pages on GDPR regulation and the Hungarian and European data protection practice, and then transferred the whole material into questions and responses to make it clear to everyone. Questions, answers, suggestions are all written in clear and plain language, explained in layman’s terms. We also help the user with examples to clarify more complex issues.

What is special about Data Hawk?

Data Hawk is a new milestone in the legal-tech area, a high-quality legal service that only a limited number of large and multinational companies could have afforded is now equally available to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

How much time does it take to use Data Hawk?

You can go through the questionnaire within 2-3 hours. This is realistic because in the case of a small business, the user of the questionnaire knows much more about all the ins and outs of a company than in the case of a large company where the full picture can only be grasped with the involvement of several different departments. On the other hand, Data Hawk speeds the auditing work of large companies. When we make GDPR compliance audit projects for large companies, we always ask them to use Datahawk as a first step, as it is much faster and easier to find and solve the problematic areas.

After using the questionnaire, Data Hawk processes the answers and gives an evaluation report. What can we learn from this assessment?

The evaluation includes a specific task list, accurate, personalized tasks about what to do to meet GDPR requirements. Most of these tasks can be done by the company’s owner and staff. Of course, there are also more complex tasks where an expert’s help is inevitable. But in this case, the expert gets the Data Hawk report (containing legal gaps) which makes the whole process more affordable and faster.

Can you tell about such a diversified product that it is ready?

Data Hawk is ready, but our plan is to continuously improve and update it to emerging needs. We are also paying attention to our customer feedback, and on that basis we will further improve the software. We also have the mid-term plan to launch this product in other Member States as businesses struggle there with similar GDPR compliance problems.

For further information about how Data Hawk can help your business in GDPR compliance, please contact:
VJT & Partners
János Tamás Varga, managing partner
 +3615019900
 vargajt@vjt-partners.com