The regulatory compliance guide for visitor management

For companies who mean to keep their data security risks under control for successful corporate governance

With the ongoing wave of data privacy reformation taking place across the globe, with no real end in sight, the general cost of data protection compliance is expected to double over the next five years. Double!

But that’s nothing compared to the costs of non-compliance. If your organization aspires to comply with all the global laws, policies, and regulations around your visitor management, then we've got you covered.

In 2017, an independent study by the Ponemon Institute, commissioned by Globalscape,  determined a spike of nearly 45% in costs relating to non-compliance since 2011. This, after interviewing 237 individuals involved in compliance activities in 53 global organizations.

The final tally?

An average of $14.82 million in penalties in 2017—and this was way before the GDPR ever hit.

Compliance_non-compliance_COSTs-PROXYCLICK

Incidentally, "compliance activities" can be broken down into 3 categories:

  1. Process: documenting and putting measures in place to maintain compliance
  2. People: having compliance officers or staff on your payroll
  3. Technologies: Implementing the tools and software to help minimize risk

Both the risks and rewards associated with regulatory compliance have reached new heights in the sink-or-swim era of data privacy and accountability.

But drowning in potentially crippling costs is no way to go. Your lifeline comes from keeping your customers satisfied and feeling confident that you'll keep them safe.

Merriam_Webster_Sink_Or_Swim

If you're anything like Proxyclick and want to swim your way to compliance gold, then you've come to the right place. Because, let's face it, there's no one going around handing out "We are compliant" badges. It simply comes down to what your company's DNA is made of.

You'd actually be surprised how much your visitor management system—assuming you have one in place—can help you manage your compliance objectives.

That's why we've created this guide to help explain some of the key global regulations your business must comply with—and how it relates directly to the way you manage your external visitors and contractors.

Here's what we'll cover:

 

1. GDPR

General Data Protection Regulation

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation, and it went into effect on May 25th, 2018.

Fact: Visitors on the premises of physical businesses are also covered under the GDPR’s scope, so don't fall for the myths about GDPR and visitor management.

This law encompasses the entirety of the European Union (EU) and the countless companies that do business inside its borders as well as those who collect personal data from EU citizens.

It’s also the reason why we find ourselves ticking countless boxes on websites asking us for permission to collect our data.

EU_Map_GDPR-regulatory-compliance

It's essential for businesses to maintain regulatory compliance with GDPR laws—or else they risk hefty fines for the crime of negligent data security practices.

Fact: Visitors on the premises of physical businesses are also covered under the GDPR’s scope, so don't fall for the myths about GDPR and visitor management.

Meaning, your visitor sign-in sheet is not exempt from GDPR governance. So, if your company has a paper logbook at its front desk that requires your visitors to sign in and out, this too is subject to GDPR compliance.

Good to know

The GDPR puts in place general principles that have to be respected when processing personal data. These are:

  • Fairness and transparency
  • Purpose limitation
  • Data minimization
  • Accuracy
  • Storage limitation
  • Integrity and confidentiality

GDPR applies to any processing of personal data, meaning, any data that can be linked to an individual. This includes names, email addresses, car registration numbers, or pictures, therefore, GDPR has fundamental implications for how your visitor data is collected and managed.

So wouldn't it be easier to rely on a cloud-based visitor management system to do all the heavy lifting so you can focus on the welcome?

Chronologically, the Visitor Management System (or the logbook) will be the first thing the auditor will see. We heard from clients' stories about auditors who started their day by playing with the front desk iPad for one hour and seeing it from a data privacy perspective.

Geoffroy De Cooman
Head of Product, Proxyclick

How does Proxyclick help you comply with GDPR?

  • Keep an eye on how visitor data is collected and managed inside your company, at the group level or per location, with specific multi-location best practices 
  • Comply with data minimization regulations by customizing what personal data is collected and only collecting
  • Use custom fields to tailor the questions you ask by type of visitor or tenant, in the case of a multi-tenant building, so that you're only asking the questions necessary for business
  • Manually delete visit details in bulk or as needed should a visitor exercise their right to be forgotten
  • Set custom data retention periods for automatic visit deletion to ensure no information is kept for longer than it is needed
  • Integrate the recommended clause we provide right inside your NDAs and other legal documents, when asking for explicit consent (once you've determined the level of consent needed depending on legitimate interests). Use it now
  • Determine the level of consent needed depending on legitimate interests for visitor consent at sign-in using custom fields for questions, clearly communicating what data is being captured, and why
  • Put a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) in place (See a sample)
  • Manage data processing with custom user role rights and restrictions over who can view, modify, export, and delete personal data
  • Provide comprehensive search functionalities and full audit trail
  • Reporting on incidents to take quick action in the case of downtown or possible risks

2. CCPA

California Consumer Protection Act

What is CCPA?

CCPA stands for the California Consumer Protection Act, and this regulation is going to go into effect on January 1st, 2020.

So what is CCPA? It's an act designed to give consumers greater control over their personal data, and the right to know which businesses are using it. (Learn the differences between GDPR and CCPA here).

There are 4 primary goals to the act that you, as a consumer and patron, can be afforded to:

  1. Own your personal information
  2. Control your personal information
  3. Secure your personal information
  4. Hold big corporates accountable
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If you're a business owner, this act will require you to disclose specific information you have about your customers and/or visitors (if requested from you).

The good news is that this can easily be produced by putting a Data Privacy Policy (DPP) in place with a number of items:

  1. A description of the new rights afforded California residents. 
  2. A description of the methods for submitting personal information or erasure request.
  3. A link to an opt-out page on the website.
  4. A list of all the categories of personal information collected in the past 12 months. 
  5. The sources of each category of personal information. 
  6. All of the purposes of using each category of collected personal information. 
  7. A list of the categories of personal information sold in the past 12 months.
  8. A list of the categories of personal information disclosed for a business purpose in the past 12 months.

Finally, in accordance with the CCPA, your DPP must be updated annually.

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Furthermore, since consumers will also be able to opt out of having their information sold by a company under the CCPA, it could create substantial market changes for businesses that profit from selling customer data.

This includes the information collected from your visitors and external contractors.

How does Proxyclick help you comply with CCPA?

  • Manage and maintain your business's visitor data for CCPA audit purposes with a full audit trail and robust reporting functions
  • Once you've determined the level of consent needed, you can integrate the recommended clause we provide, in 22 languages, asking for explicit consent. Use it now
  • Custom data retention periods to ensure no information is kept for longer than it is needed (upon deletion request by visitors)

3. APPI

Act on the Protection of Personal Information

What is APPI?

APPI stands for the Act on the Protection of Personal Information.

Its purpose: To protect the rights and interests of individuals while ensuring due consideration for the usefulness of personal information by basic principles for the proper handling of personal information.

And what most of us don't realize is that it was Japan’s first data protection law that became official in 2003—a whole 15 years prior to GDPR going live.

However, updates were made to this law in 2015 after a wave of high-profile data breaches rocked the country. Back then, over 12.6 million separate data breaches were reported, with roughly 1-in-10 of the nation’s people affected.

The new version of APPI came into law in 2017. With it, the PPC, or, the Personal Information Protection Commission was also brought into effect. If your company handles the personal data of individuals in Japan, then it must comply with these regulation sets.

Then on July 17, 2018, less than two months after the  EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect, Japan and the European Union publicly agreed and recognized each other’s data protection regimes (despite some natural variations to their regulations).

They stated that that both laws "provided adequate protections for personal data."

Cheers to that!

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Under the APPI people can also request businesses to disclose the data that has been collected from them, access that specific information, and demand that the company suspend their data collection efforts on them if desired.

Notably, Japanese consumers now also have the right to sue companies that fail to answer APPI-related questions within two weeks. In addition to the costs of being sued, Japanese business owners can face fines of up to 500,000 Japanese yen and a year of jail time for failure to comply with the APPI.

How does Proxyclick help you comply with APPI?

  • Provides you, the "business operator,"  a full audit trail in case of APPI audits. This is especially important because the APPI has a very broad and open concept of data processing.
  • Comply with "purpose limitation" in by using custom questions to minimize the processing of information beyond the scope necessary for achieving the purpose of use.
  • Ability to obtain consent from visitors as to the purpose of use data collected.
  • Custom data retention periods to ensure no information is kept for longer than it is needed upon visitors' request to delete the retained personal data.

4. PCI DSS

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

What is PCI DSS?

PCI DSS stands for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which includes regulations and rules that are aimed at protecting consumers data in regards to their credit cards, debit cards, and cash cards.

The main goals of the PCI DSS requirements are very straightforward: 

  • Build and maintain a secure network and systems
  • Protect cardholder data
  • Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
  • Implement strong access control measures
  • Regularly monitor and test networks
  • Maintain an Information Security Policy

 

PCI-DSS-goals-regulatory-compliance

PCI DSS applies to any organization with a merchant ID that either transmits or processes information related to credit card holder data.

There are twelve major requirements for PCI DSS compliance:

  1. Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect card holder data (CHD).
  2. Not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters.
  3. Protect stored cardholder data.
  4. Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks.
  5. Use and regularly update antivirus software.
  6. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications.
  7. Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know.
  8. Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access.
  9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data.
  10. Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data.
  11. Regularly test security systems and processes.
  12. Maintain a policy that addresses information security.

In 2014, Home Depot was hacked, resulting in the information from 56 million credit cards and debit cards being stolen. To compensate for the damages, the company ended up paying out a total of  $159.5 million to date, and that was five years ago.

The consequences for such a violation occurring today have since grown more severe. And it's not just malware or hacks that you need to be wary of. Your company's also got to secure specific ares of your business where this data might be stored.

How does Proxyclick help you comply with PCI DSS?

In case you didn't know, there are real implications for you when it comes to PCI DSS and visitor management. There are a number of actions that Proxyclick can help you with:  
  • Enforce mandatory pre-registration of all visitors and contractors
  • Use ID Match for government-issued ID-scanning using facial recognition for identity verification at check-in 
  • Screen all visitors against internal and external global watchlists to ensure authorization
  • Send security alerts if unauthorized access is attempted
  • Capture visitors' digital signatures on legal documents and NDAs
  • Print custom visitor badges with photos, QR codes for access, and detailed information for fast identification and authorization
  • Grant and restrict access to areas of your premises with access control integrations
  • Send automated notifications to hosts to keep everyone aware of visitors' check-ins
  • Depend on secure cloud storage of your visitor data
  • Track visitor history and their precise movements for reporting and audit purposes
  • Export data for all insurance- and audit-related queries

5. ITAR

International Traffic in Arms Regulations

What is ITAR?

ITAR stands for the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and it specifically addresses any companies involved with the U.S. defense industry.

The regulations primarily relate to the export and import of defense-related services, articles, and technologies defined under the U.S. munitions list. 

If your company does business, of any kind, with the United States military, it must be compliant with ITAR. So even if you only deal with information related to items on the U.S. munitions list, then you're still required to comply with its rules.

This could mean you fall into any of five categories:

  • Wholesalers
  • Contractors
  • Tech/software providers
  • Distributors, and
  • Third-party vendors
ITAR-regulatory-compliance

In case you're wondering what constitutes U.S. munitions falling under ITAR's jurisdiction:

  1. Firearms, Close Assault Weapons, and Combat Shotguns
  2. Guns and Armament
  3. Ammunition/Ordnance
  4. Launch Vehicles, Guided Missiles, Ballistic Missiles, Rockets, Torpedoes, Bombs, and Mines
  5. Explosives and Energetic Materials, Propellants, Incendiary Agents and Their Constituents
  6. Surface Vessels of War and Special Naval Equipment
  7. Ground Vehicles
  8. Aircraft and Related Articles
  9. Military Training Equipment
  10. Personal Protective Equipment
  11. Military Electronics
  12. Fire Control, Laser, Imaging, and Guidance Equipment
  13. Materials and Miscellaneous Articles
  14. Toxicological Agents, Including Chemical Agents, Biological Agents, and Associated Equipment
  15. Spacecraft and Related Articles
  16. Nuclear Weapons and Related Articles
  17. Classified Articles, Technical Data, and Defense Services Not Otherwise Enumerated
  18. Directed Energy Weapons
  19. Gas Turbine Engines and Associated Equipment
  20. Submersible Vessels and Related Articles
  21. Articles, Technical Data, and Defense Services Not Otherwise Enumerated

The penalties for violating ITAR rules are extremely strict. Civil fines can span up to $500,000 per violation, with criminal charges reaching $1,000,000 and potentially including 10 years jail time.

There is zero room for error when it comes to maintaining ITAR regulatory compliance. It's your responsibility to make sure that sensitive information isn't accessible to just anyone.

For this reason, your company needs to also take extreme care of your external visitors and contractors. Access control technology that's integrated with your visitor management system becomes a must-have, not only for security but for financial savings in cutting the need for personal escorts.

How does Proxyclick help you comply with the ITAR?

  • Enforce mandatory pre-registration of all visitors and contractors
  • Use ID Match for government-issued ID-scanning using facial recognition for identity verification at check-in 
  • Verify country of origin or citizenship between visitors
  • Ask specific custom check-in questions to ascertain the purpose of the visitor and level of authorization
  • Screen all visitors against internal and external global watchlists to ensure authorization
  • Send security alerts if unauthorized access is attempted
  • Capture visitors' digital signatures on legal documents and NDAs
  • Print custom visitor badges with photos, QR codes for access, and detailed information for fast identification and authorization
  • Grant and restrict access to areas of your premises with access control integrations
  • Send automated notifications to hosts to keep everyone aware of visitors' check-ins
  • Depend on secure cloud storage of your visitor data
  • Track visitor history and their precise movements for reporting and audit purposes
  • Export data for all insurance- and audit-related queries

6. C-TPAT

Customs-Trade Partnerships Against Terrorism

What is C-TPAT?

C-TPAT stands for the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, and was developed for two major purposes:

  1. to help businesses grow their supply chains under safe practices, and
  2. increase border security at the same time

The C-TPAT was launched in 2001, and is a voluntary joint-government partnership. Over 10,000 companies are C-TPAT-certified, with roughly 50 percent of them being importers.

If your company wants to achieve a C-TPAT certification, you have to have a documented process for determining and reducing risk throughout their international supply chain.

There many benefits to being C-TPAT-certified. To name a few:

  • Your company is considered low risk.
  • You'll have access to educational resources and support (Especially helpful if you’re also required to comply with an industry-specific regulation such as FSMA as it relates to the Foreign Supplier Verification Program).
  • You may resume business faster in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
  • You'll face lower fines or penalties for future infractions
  • You'll have a competitive edge over those who aren't certified
  • You're entitled to fewer customs inspections, and
  • You are eligible for expedited processing for your cargo

Only certain types of companies can be accepted into C-TPAT, and they must meet a range of specific and unique requirements.

They are, though, focused around four core principles:

  1. Security
  2. Accountability
  3. Increasing transparency
  4. Reducing terrorism risks
C-TPAT-regulatory-compliance-1

Here is a list of company types that are eligible to apply for C-TPAT certifications:

  • U.S. importers of record
  • U.S. exporters
  • U.S./Mexico and U.S./Canada cross-border highway carriers
  • Rail carriers
  • Sea carriers
  • Air Carriers
  • U.S. marine port authority and terminal operators
  • Consolidators (U.S. air freight consolidators, ocean transportation intermediaries and non-vessel operating common carriers)
  • Mexican manufacturers
  • Canadian manufacturers
  • Certain invited foreign manufacturers
  • Licensed U.S. customs brokers
  • Third-party logistics providers

How does Proxyclick help you comply with the C-TPAT?

  • Document and create custom workflows for visitor and contractor management 
  • Enforce mandatory pre-registration of all visitors and contractors
  • Use ID Match for government-issued ID-scanning using facial recognition for identity verification at check-in 
  • Verify country of origin or citizenship between visitors
  • Ask specific custom check-in questions to ascertain the purpose of the visitor and level of authorization
  • Screen all visitors against internal and external global watchlists to ensure authorization
  • Send security alerts if unauthorized access is attempted
  • Capture visitors' digital signatures on legal documents and NDAs
  • Print custom visitor badges with photos, QR codes for access, and detailed information for fast identification and authorization
  • Grant and restrict access to areas of your premises with access control integrations
  • Send automated notifications to hosts to keep everyone aware of visitors' check-ins
  • Depend on secure cloud storage of your visitor data
  • Track visitor history and their precise movements for reporting and audit purposes
  • Export data for C-TPAT certification preparations

7. FSMA

Food Safety Modernization Act

What is the FSMA?

FSMA stands for the Food Safety Modernization Act, a food handling regulation that was put into place by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the U.S. Obama administration in 2011.

The FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is commonly referred to as the most sweeping food safety laws reform in over 70 years. It covers topics such as how food is grown, how it is packaged, processed, shipped, and imported into the U.S.—food defense.

The ultimate goal of the FDA's Act is to make food handling safer in the United States, and to prevent food-related safety issues from sprouting up in the U.S. food supply. This includes whom you let into your production sites, and when, like visitors or contractors.

When a visitor or contractor arrives at your food manufacturing site, it’s the responsibility of your team to ensure they meet safety guidelines. At the same time, your external visitors should feel welcomed and safe.

These two outcomes shouldn't be mutually exclusive. And they don't have to be with the right visitor management system in place.

Hence, the launch of the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) final rule that applies to most entities who import food into the United States from abroad, including domestic facilities and food brokers.

Just ask Greencore Group plc, a  leading convenience food business with an annual turnover of approximately £ 1.3 billion.

Rather than just record the answers to questions on custom screens, the app enables us to act on responses with smartrules. Reception is able to engage with the visitor to get more information.

Costas Moraitis, IT Business Relationship Manager, Greencore Group plc

With constant changes being made in the way food is supplied we can always expect the threat of unforeseen food-borne illnesses—and stricter safer regulations are key to preventing them. (See our tips on streamlining health and food safety screenings)

There are 7 major areas of focus for the FSMA regulations:

  • Standards for the growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of fruits and vegetables for human consumption
  • Mitigation strategies to protect food from intentional adulteration
  • Current good manufacturing practice and hazard analysis and risk-based preventative controls for food for humans and animals
  • Sanitary transportation of human and animal food
  • Accredited third-party certification bodies to conduct food safety audits and issue certifications
  • Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) for importers of food for humans and animals
  • Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP)
FSMA_must_haves-regulatory-compliance

What's more, a failure to comply can result in harsh punishments that range between misdemeanor convictions of $100,000 and a year of imprisonment for individual offenders, and $250,000 if a violation results in death.

For organizations, those penalties are doubled. But the cost of managing healthy safety processes across multiple sites can also add up. That's when it's good move to let your visitor management software do its job to help you maximize the visitor experience at your food manufacturing site.

Asking security-related questions, such as health information to each of our visitors entering our site, is an important aspect of our security protocol. However, managing that process across multiple sites has a significant cost.

Quentin Regout
Managing Director, Hesbaye Frost

How does Proxyclick help you comply with the FSMA?

  • Document and create custom workflows according to Q&As for health and safety guidelines (Download our sample health questionnaire
  • Enforce mandatory pre-registration of all visitors and contractors
  • Screen all visitors against watchlists to deny access to restricted or banned individuals
  • Send security alerts if unauthorized access is attempted
  • Ensure visitors follow Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and provide their consent through a streamlined process
  • Improve the provision of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for visitors and ensure they only have access to appropriate areas on your site
  • Collect digital signatures on site regulations and agreements 
  • Print detailed and custom visitor badges for identification and authorization
  • Depend on secure cloud storage of your visitor data
  • Track and export visitor histories and their precise movements for reporting and audit purposes

8. Additional Resources

At Proxyclick, we strive to stay on top of the changes in global regulations affecting your success in corporate governance. As such, we have prepared a host of actionable content around the topic that's updated regularly:

Blogs

Browse our selection of regulatory compliance-related articles, including:

E-books and white papers

  • Maximizing the visitor experience at food at food manufacturing sites: Our best practices guide for managing visitors safely and memorably. Download it
  • Checking into into data privacy: Our insights into GDPR-compliant visitor management, plus an overview of GDPR basics and helpful checklists provided by Crowell & Moring LLP. Download it

Webinar

  • We have also hosted a series of webinars on the topic of key technologies that will help you better security your building in line with regulatory compliance requirements. Watch the replay
Because let's face it, nobody's going around handing out "We are compliant" badges. It simply comes down to what your company's DNA is made of.

So if you'd like to take action today, then contact us to keep this conversation going!

Get started on the path to GDPR-compliance visitor management! Try for free*

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Disclaimer: The information presented above is not legal advice, is not to be acted on as such, may not be current and is subject to change without notice. You should seek professional legal counsel before taking any action.