GDPR, Privacy and Data Protection

The European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) legislation introduces a new set of rules for the processing of personal data. GDPR is the most modern and fully integrated legislation on data privacy, and the applicability of the GDPR does not stop at the borders of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Forms On Fire has embraced the requirements of GDPR, and we consider GDPR to be the benchmark for our privacy and data protection efforts. Below you’ll find information about GDPR, as well as answers about data protection and privacy at Forms On Fire.

You should also consult our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for further details on these topics.

Why GDPR should matter to you

GDPR modernizes outdated privacy laws and impacts your organization if you collect or process data in or from Europe. If you’re based in Europe, or you work with persons that are in Europe, then you likely need to comply with GDPR. Fines of up to €20,000,000 or 4% of global annual revenue, whichever is greater, could be levied on you if your organization is impacted and is not compliant with GDPR regulations.

How to prepare for GDPR

If your organization is impacted by GDPR, then you need to make sure you are compliant with the legislation before it commences on May 25, 2018. The good news is that we make it easy to use Forms On Fire in a GDPR-compliant way!

The following steps are recommended as a means to achieving compliance.

NOTE: We’re not lawyers! If you’re unsure about your compliance status, please seek your own legal advice.

Review your vendors/suppliers and data flows

Make a list of your software and other vendors, and document the data flows across your business, what type of personal data you collect and who has access. It’s likely that you will need to design agreements that assure data protection with any vendors who may handle personal data (personally identifiable information or PII).

Review the Forms On Fire DPA if applicable

If you are a Forms On Fire client and are considered to be a data controller under GDPR, then you should review our online Data Processing Addendum (DPA) as it applies to you. The Forms On Fire DPA incorporates with our Terms of Service so, by having acknowledged our Terms of Service and continuing to use Forms On Fire, you’re already accepting our DPA. If you need to explicitly sign a data processing agreement with Forms On Fire, please email to us your company’s legal name and address to engage@formsonfire.com requesting a copy of our DPA.

Identify and mitigate your risks

Perform a risk assessment within your business to identify any gaps that need to be addressed for meeting GDPR compliance.

Implement ongoing compliance

Plan and implement your GDPR compliance activities ahead of the May 25, 2018 deadline, and then ensure that compliance continues thereafter as an ongoing discipline for your organization.

Q. What if I have a question or dispute about my personal information?
Any questions or disputes about your personal information can be raised with security@formsonfire.com. We will answer you within 2 business days.

Q. What is GDPR?
“GDPR” or “General Data Protection Regulation “(EU Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC) is the new European privacy legislation. It aims to unify legislation throughout the EU with the intention to:

• increase the general awareness of data privacy
• allow individuals to take control over their privacy and their fundamental rights, and
• strengthen security requirements throughout companies and organizations.

Q. Where/when does GDPR apply?
GDPR goes into effect on May 25, 2018 and applies to:

• all organizations established in the European Economic Area (“EEA”)
• to organizations, whether or not established in the EEA, that process personal data in connection with either the offering of goods or services to natural persons in the EEA or the monitoring of behavior that takes place within the EEA.

From the moment there is processing of personal data in the EEA, or from the moment a person located in the EEA is referenced, GDPR will apply (regardless of whether the processing entity is located in the EEA).

Though Forms On Fire is an American company, with no offices or personnel within the EEA, GDPR is still applicable for all EEA-located clients of Forms On Fire.

Q. What does the Forms On Fire Platform do?
Forms On Fire markets a solution that allows the rapid creation of data-driven business apps on mobile and desktop devices, all with no programming required. This enables businesses to reduce paper, enhance productivity and improve accuracy in a wide variety of industries and field usage scenarios. The most common use-case of our platform is replacing paper forms. Forms and their associated workflows become powerful data-enabled workflow applications that work online or offline.

Forms On Fire offers this “end to end” platform for creating custom business apps, securely capturing and accessing data through these apps, safe cloud-based storage of data, and connection/integration of data with other external services.

Forms On Fire is offered as “Software as a Service” (“SaaS”), which is a licensing and delivery model where software is centrally hosted and made available to multiple customers over a network, including through interacting applications (including mobile/desktop apps, web browser, and/or connectors to third-party systems).

Personal Data (as defined by GDPR) is only processed by Forms On Fire under the control and direction of Forms On Fire clients.

Q. Who is the "Controller" or a "Processor" under GDPR?
Forms On Fire clients decide the nature of data being captured and stored, and they choose which individuals interact with the Forms On Fire platform (thus in turn whose personal data is captured and processed).

It is thus you, as a Forms On Fire client, that legally acts as the “Controller” as defined under GDPR. Forms On Fire provides the means (the Forms On Fire platform) for Forms On Fire clients to capture data and interact with their respective users, clients and other parties.

As such, Forms On Fire is only processing personal data for, and on behalf of, Forms On Fire clients as a “Processor”, as defined under GDPR. The only case where Forms On Fire acts as a Controller is during a limited set of direct interactions with Forms On Fire clients (these being governed by the Forms On Fire Privacy Policy).

Q. What is Forms On Fire doing to meet GDPR requirements?
Forms On Fire has undertaken a number of initiatives to meet GDPR requirements:

Encryption of data at rest and in transit

All data stored within the Forms On Fire Platform is encrypted on the servers, be this within a database, storage service or file backups. All data transport between servers, services and/or devices (both internally and externally) occur exclusively over SSL encrypted transport protocols.

Dedicated GDPR and Privacy Information page

We have created a dedicated webpage with detailed information about Forms On Fire’s privacy efforts at https://www.formsonfire.com/gdpr.

Security Team Officer (STO)

The Forms On Fire STO supervises our entire data privacy program and works in close conjunction with Forms On Fire and external team members on matters relating to security, data protection and privacy.

Data Processing Addendum (DPA)

Forms On Fire provides a standard DPA for clients needing to sign one between us and them. The DPA clearly outlines the data processing terms between Forms On Fire and a client, and it only requires a Forms On Fire client’s signature to complete. This allows Forms On Fire’s European clients to provide the signed DPA to auditors demonstrating that the Forms On Fire Platform is used to process data in a way that meets their GDPR compliance obligation. Please email us for a pre-signed copy of the DPA.

“Is Personal Data” flags for data entities in the platform (e.g. forms and data sources)

The Forms On Fire Platform now provides new checkbox options to allow Forms On Fire clients to flag/identify data fields that contain personal data. This, in turn, allows the Forms On Fire Platform to anonymize these fields when data leaves the Forms On Fire Platform (e.g. via manual export, connector integrations, and/or the Forms On Fire Platform API).

Careful vetting of sub-processors

Each sub-processor of Forms On Fire is vetted by our team in the areas of security, contractual terms, data processing agreements, and EU standard contractual clauses / Privacy Shield.

Up-to-date contractual documents/privacy policies

Our contractual documents have been updated to contain necessary GDPR provisions, including data processing addendum, end-to-end confidentiality and privacy policies.

Product Development

All new Platform functionality that is introduced from May 2018 onwards will include consideration of the following:

• the GDPR principles of “privacy by design” and “privacy by default”
• giving flexibility to all clients while remaining within GDPR guidelines
• keeping all changes as simple as possible
  

Q. What is a Data Processing Addendum (DPA) and does Forms On Fire provide this?
If Forms On Fire’s processing of personal data for your organization falls within the material and/or territorial scope of GDPR (articles 2 & 3), the legislation (GDPR article 28) requires that this processing occurs under a Data Processing Addendum (DPA).

By email request, the Forms On Fire DPA can be emailed to you and incorporates with our Terms of Use so, by having acknowledged our Terms of Use and continuing to use Forms On Fire, you’re already accepting our DPA. You can reference our DPA if you need to show auditors that your use of Forms On Fire meets your GDPR obligations in terms of the data that we process on your behalf.

Q. What types of Personal Data does the Forms On Fire Platform process?
For registered users on the platform, basic contact information is processed (i.e. direct identifiable personal data such as e-mail addresses or name) as well as minimal device information, connection information and geolocation. Other personal information may also be processed by the Forms On Fire Platform through data captured and stored by Forms On Fire clients. While it is not up to us to control what data we receive, this can include items such as contact information, IP addresses, and other data. We process client-submitted data as part of our contractual obligation to our clients, and in accordance with applicable laws, including the GDPR.

Q. Does the Forms On Fire Platform utilize sub-processors? How can I get the list?
We use certain sub-processors to assist in providing the Forms On Fire platform to clients. A sub-processor is a third-party data processor engaged by Forms On Fire, that has or potentially will have access to or process client data (which may include personal data). Our list of current sub-processors is available in our Data Processing Addendum. To request a copy of that addendum, please email us.

Q. How long does personal data remain on the Forms On Fire Platform?
Forms On Fire production (live) environments

Registered users

• All personal data relating to a user is either deleted or anonymized within 7 days of the user deletion action. The 7 day period allows for fast recovery if the deletion was accidental.
• For the avoidance of doubt, deactivation of a user account does not remove the account or its personal data; the account is simply archived.

All other data entities

• This is determined and configured by Forms On Fire clients, based on their own agreements with data subjects in turn. The Forms On Fire Platform provides clients with functionality to delete data entities as needed.

Forms On Fire backups

Backups are performed on a regular basis and are kept in encrypted, secure storage for up to 60 days. This means that items deleted in production environments are available for restoration from backups for up to 60 days thereafter.

Forms On Fire test/development environments

Data is occasionally extracted from production to development/testing environments for support, testing and debugging purposes. When this occurs, personal data is anonymized in order to assure privacy.

Q. Who has access to personal data stored on the Forms On Fire may be visible to:

Personal data stored on the Forms On Fire Platform may be visible to:

Forms On Fire Clients

Depending on their assigned access permissions, users can view and access personal data collected and/or stored within their Forms On Fire client account.

Forms On Fire employees & contractors

All employees & contractors are trained and contractually committed to following Forms On Fire’s privacy, security and data protection practices.

Sub-processors

We work with carefully selected services to provide aspects of the Forms On Fire platform and may process data with these services as necessary to provide Forms On Fire platform services.

Other third parties if required by applicable law or where Forms On Fire has a good-faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

1. protect the safety of any person from death or serious bodily injury, or
2. prevent fraud or abuse

Access only occurs to the extent and limited to, such personal data as necessary for that specific purpose of the respective party.

Q. Where is personal data stored? Does it leave the European Economic Area?
The Forms On Fire Platform is hosted on geo-redundant locations (“nodes”) in the United States of America and in the European Union. We understand that some companies and clients have strict rules about where software and data can be hosted. If the above regions are not sufficient to meet your data sovereignty or corporate requirements, please email us to inquire about our plans to host outside these areas or to ask about our managed enterprise server option.

Forms On Fire also provides software features to clients which allows them to anonymize personal data upon export out of the Forms On Fire Platform.

Q. Is data processed by Forms On Fire used for direct marketing or automated decision making?

Registered administrator users may be contacted by Forms On Fire with news or offers about the Forms On Fire Services. This communication can be unsubscribed at any time by the user. Forms On Fire does not use personal data processed through the Forms On Fire Platform for direct marketing purposes, nor does the Forms On Fire Platform employ automated decision-making processes/techniques which create or deny rights to individual persons. We only process personal data under instruction and under control of the Forms On Fire client for the purpose of the Forms On Fire Platform solution.