Regulators are intensifying their oversight, especially for businesses that handle sensitive information and operate globally. The increased scrutiny is evident in the millions in GDPR fines imposed on several US companies by data protection authorities in the EU since 2020.
This scrutiny can complicate compliance priorities for organizations operating in both the EU and the US. While the EU enforces a single, comprehensive data privacy regulation via the GDPR, the US relies on a growing patchwork of state-specific data privacy laws, which can lead to fragmented and repetitive compliance efforts.
To resolve the issue, Vanta—a trusted leader in trust management—created the US Data Privacy (USDP) framework, which offers an efficient, unified approach to managing US privacy regulations across states.
But how does the USDP compare to the GDPR, and can compliance with one support the other? Let’s explore both frameworks to understand their key requirements, overlaps, and differences.
What is the GDPR?
Introduced in 2018, the GDPR is the European Union’s main data privacy law that sets clear expectations for how organizations must protect the personal data of individuals in the EU. It also gives people greater rights over how their data is collected, processed, stored, and used, while holding organizations accountable for responsible data handling.
Under the GDPR, organizations fall into two distinct groups, depending on their role in data processing:
- Controllers: They determine why personal data is collected and how it will be used
- Processors: They handle personal information on behalf of controllers, such as storing or analyzing it
A single organization can be both a controller and a processor, just not for the same processing activity. For instance, an organization is a controller when managing the personal data of its own employees, but becomes a processor when providing HR data management services to another organization.
Controllers must ensure that any processors they engage meet GDPR security requirements. This is done through a data processing agreement (DPA), a contract defining the responsibilities and obligations of both parties.
{{cta_withimage14="/cta-blocks"}} | GDPR compliance checklist
Who should comply with the GDPR?
The GDPR is extraterriotrial and applies to any organization that targets individuals in the EU for data processing. This includes organizations outside the EU that handle the personal data of individuals in the EU in any way. You’re considered in scope if you:
- Offer goods or services to individuals in the EU, even if they’re free
- Monitor the behavior of individuals in the EU
Organizations that process such data must either have an establishment in the EU or appoint a representative in the primary EU Member State where the data subjects are located. This representative acts as a point of contact for both data subjects and supervisory authorities.
As part of ongoing compliance, organizations must also submit reports and breach notifications to the data processing authority in the relevant jurisdiction.
What is the USDP?
The US Data Privacy (USDP) framework is an exclusive data privacy framework designed and managed by Vanta. It was launched to cut through the chaos in the US data privacy compliance space, where organizations must align with dozens of overlapping state and federal laws and track scattered regulatory updates.
The USDP consolidates all relevant requirements into one unified framework, enabling organizations to maintain multiple compliance alignments across states more efficiently. This reduces overwhelm for teams by minimizing the risk of duplicated efforts, compliance gaps, and other inefficiencies.
The USDP’s compliance requirements are inspired by the Fair Information and Practice Principles (FIPP), which underpin all modern privacy laws, including international regulations like the GDPR.
At the time of writing, the USDP supports full compliance for the following 15 state laws:
By adopting the USDP, you can demonstrate that your controls align with virtually all modern privacy regulations in the United States. Additionally, Vanta continually refines and updates the framework, so your team won’t have to manually track regulatory changes.
{{cta_withimage11="/cta-blocks"}}| The US data privacy checklist
Who must comply with the USDP?
Compliance with the USDP itself isn’t mandatory. However, the framework is built around existing state and federal data privacy laws, which are enforceable in their respective jurisdictions.
If your organization handles personal information in the US, you must comply with the applicable US data privacy law(s). Which laws apply depends on factors like your organization's size, industry, and the state in which you operate.
Here are a few examples of how applicability rules vary for different states:
Note: By complying with the USDP, your organization is effectively compliant with privacy regulations in multiple jurisdictions, reducing the need to assess state-by-state applicability.
Relationship between the GDPR and the USDP
Although they are aimed at different regions, the GDPR and USDP are aligned in purpose and practice. Some notable similarities include:
- Both frameworks aim to strengthen data security and build trust
- Neither framework offers a “certification”
From a procedural perspective, both frameworks emphasize users’ data privacy rights and require organizations to develop processes, policies, and procedures to protect individual privacy. The USDP also mirrors GDPR by offering a unified set of principles, such as transparency and data minimization, which guide compliance requirements across multiple states.
Despite these similarities, the USDP and GDPR have several differences that set them apart.
“
The GDPR is a single comprehensive framework applicable across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). In contrast, data privacy in the United States is characterized by a fragmented array of federal, state, and local regulations. Vanta's USDP framework is designed to address these diverse US requirements, ensuring comprehensive compliance.”
GDPR and USDP: 4 main differences
The GDPR and USDP have several differences from a legal perspective, such as:
- Mandatory status
- Scope
- Enforcement
- Individual protections
1. Mandatory status
The GDPR is mandatory for all in-scope organizations. Non-compliance with the GDPR can result in substantial financial penalties (up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue), corrective measures imposed by supervisory authorities, or legal action.
USDP compliance isn’t mandatory. It’s a voluntary framework intended to help organizations align with state privacy laws (which are themselves mandatory). It doesn't carry financial penalties of its own, but alignment can help you meet enforceable legal requirements and avoid fines for regulations such as the CCPA, and the OCPA.
2. Scope
The GDPR covers all organizations that monitor or handle data of people in the EU, regardless of size and industry. However, organization-specific requirements can still vary depending on the scale and nature of processing.
For example, some controller organizations may be exempt from appointing a data protection officer (DPO), but are still liable for fines on account of other violations.
The USDP is designed to align with several US state laws, which typically include regulation-specific thresholds or exemptions based on factors like industry, size, or volume of personal data. This means that not all organizations in the US are automatically in scope. That said, the USDP itself does not differentiate between organizations, recommending the same set of controls to all.
{{cta_withimage14="/cta-blocks"}} | GDPR compliance checklist
3. Enforcement
The GDPR has a central enforcement body, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), whose main purpose is to ensure consistent application of the GDPR across EU Member States. However, specific enforcement duties still fall on each state’s data protection authority, the body responsible for receiving breach reports, investigating violations, and issuing fines.
The USDP doesn’t have any enforcement body, but the underlying state laws that it supports are enforceable by local agencies, such as the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA).
4. Individual protections
The key tenets of the GDPR are data subject protection, accountability, and transparency. It establishes strong safeguards for consent management, data minimization, breach reporting, and access rights as a way to ensure individuals have greater control over how their information is handled. It provides individual protections through eight data subject rights:
- Right to be informed
- Right of access
- Right to rectification
- Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”)
- Right to restriction of processing
- Right to data portability
- Right to object
- Rights related to automated decision-making, including profiling
The USDP similarly requires that organizations implement “reasonable and appropriate security measures” to safeguard personally identifiable information (PII). This includes both technical controls, such as data encryption, and established processes, like data minimization.
However, a key distinction lies in the definition of personal data. The GDPR applies broadly to all personal data, while some US regulations may exclude certain types of data, such as employee or B2B data.
{{cta_withimage11="/cta-blocks"}}| The US data privacy checklist
What should your GDPR and USDP compliance strategy be?
Your choice of compliance ultimately depends on your industry and customer expectations. If your organization is based in the US and provides services in the EU, you’re in scope for both the GDPR and US federal and state data privacy laws.
A practical approach would be to use the GDPR as your baseline. Implementing its controls, particularly around data minimization and purpose limitation, means your organization will meet or exceed what’s required by the USDP. So, GDPR can give you a head start on the USDP compliance process and eliminate potential redundancies.
At the same time, the USDP serves as advisory guidance that helps you shift away from ticking off state-specific checklists to meeting the requirements of modern US privacy laws. This reduces the complexity of multi-jurisdiction obligations and keeps your compliance posture agile.
Complying with both frameworks is a big win and can steadily build customer trust, since it demonstrates that your organization is serious about data security on both domestic and global fronts.
{{cta_simple19="/cta-blocks"}} | USDP product page
Streamline GDPR and USDP compliance with Vanta
With Vanta, organizations can tailor and scale their compliance program with step-by-step guidance and exclusive support resources. We offer out-of-the-box support for both the GDPR and the USDP.
Our GDPR solution offers dedicated checklists and workflows to operationalize compliance requirements. You can save countless teamwide hours you’d otherwise spend on legal research, external consultations, and planning. Here’s a snapshot of our key GDPR features:
- GDPR-specific training modules
- Automated evidence collection powered by 400+ integrations
- A single dashboard for everything GDPR
- Real-time monitoring with instant report generation
- Pre-built policy templates and a customization tool
You can expect a similar guided experience with our USDP compliance automation product. Today, Vanta is the only cloud-based compliance platform that streamlines multi-state USDP compliance into a single, continuously updated framework. You save time and money by focusing on just one compliance roadmap and still reduce the risk of state-specific compliance gaps.
Schedule a custom demo today to discuss your compliance needs with our experts.
{{cta_simple19="/cta-blocks"}} | GDPR product page
FAQs
1. Does USDP apply to companies outside the US?
No, US state privacy laws (and, by extension, the USDP) mostly apply to organizations operating within a specific state that meet the set criteria. That said, non-US companies handling US data may still need to follow applicable US privacy laws.
2. Can one compliance program cover GDPR and USDP together?
Yes, a single well-designed compliance program can align with both GDPR and USDP, using GDPR as a baseline and USDP to cover US-specific requirements.
3. Does the USDP require a formal audit?
No, the USDP doesn’t require a format audit. Organizations can self-attest or use the Vanta platform to validate controls and demonstrate compliance.
A note from Vanta: Vanta is not a law firm, and this article does not constitute or contain legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. When determining your obligations and compliance with respect to relevant laws and regulations, you should consult a licensed attorney.
GDPR and other frameworks
GDPR and USDP: Similarities, differences, and impact on compliance
GDPR and other frameworks
Looking to streamline the work for GDPR compliance?
Regulators are intensifying their oversight, especially for businesses that handle sensitive information and operate globally. The increased scrutiny is evident in the millions in GDPR fines imposed on several US companies by data protection authorities in the EU since 2020.
This scrutiny can complicate compliance priorities for organizations operating in both the EU and the US. While the EU enforces a single, comprehensive data privacy regulation via the GDPR, the US relies on a growing patchwork of state-specific data privacy laws, which can lead to fragmented and repetitive compliance efforts.
To resolve the issue, Vanta—a trusted leader in trust management—created the US Data Privacy (USDP) framework, which offers an efficient, unified approach to managing US privacy regulations across states.
But how does the USDP compare to the GDPR, and can compliance with one support the other? Let’s explore both frameworks to understand their key requirements, overlaps, and differences.
What is the GDPR?
Introduced in 2018, the GDPR is the European Union’s main data privacy law that sets clear expectations for how organizations must protect the personal data of individuals in the EU. It also gives people greater rights over how their data is collected, processed, stored, and used, while holding organizations accountable for responsible data handling.
Under the GDPR, organizations fall into two distinct groups, depending on their role in data processing:
- Controllers: They determine why personal data is collected and how it will be used
- Processors: They handle personal information on behalf of controllers, such as storing or analyzing it
A single organization can be both a controller and a processor, just not for the same processing activity. For instance, an organization is a controller when managing the personal data of its own employees, but becomes a processor when providing HR data management services to another organization.
Controllers must ensure that any processors they engage meet GDPR security requirements. This is done through a data processing agreement (DPA), a contract defining the responsibilities and obligations of both parties.
{{cta_withimage14="/cta-blocks"}} | GDPR compliance checklist
Who should comply with the GDPR?
The GDPR is extraterriotrial and applies to any organization that targets individuals in the EU for data processing. This includes organizations outside the EU that handle the personal data of individuals in the EU in any way. You’re considered in scope if you:
- Offer goods or services to individuals in the EU, even if they’re free
- Monitor the behavior of individuals in the EU
Organizations that process such data must either have an establishment in the EU or appoint a representative in the primary EU Member State where the data subjects are located. This representative acts as a point of contact for both data subjects and supervisory authorities.
As part of ongoing compliance, organizations must also submit reports and breach notifications to the data processing authority in the relevant jurisdiction.
What is the USDP?
The US Data Privacy (USDP) framework is an exclusive data privacy framework designed and managed by Vanta. It was launched to cut through the chaos in the US data privacy compliance space, where organizations must align with dozens of overlapping state and federal laws and track scattered regulatory updates.
The USDP consolidates all relevant requirements into one unified framework, enabling organizations to maintain multiple compliance alignments across states more efficiently. This reduces overwhelm for teams by minimizing the risk of duplicated efforts, compliance gaps, and other inefficiencies.
The USDP’s compliance requirements are inspired by the Fair Information and Practice Principles (FIPP), which underpin all modern privacy laws, including international regulations like the GDPR.
At the time of writing, the USDP supports full compliance for the following 15 state laws:
By adopting the USDP, you can demonstrate that your controls align with virtually all modern privacy regulations in the United States. Additionally, Vanta continually refines and updates the framework, so your team won’t have to manually track regulatory changes.
{{cta_withimage11="/cta-blocks"}}| The US data privacy checklist
Who must comply with the USDP?
Compliance with the USDP itself isn’t mandatory. However, the framework is built around existing state and federal data privacy laws, which are enforceable in their respective jurisdictions.
If your organization handles personal information in the US, you must comply with the applicable US data privacy law(s). Which laws apply depends on factors like your organization's size, industry, and the state in which you operate.
Here are a few examples of how applicability rules vary for different states:
Note: By complying with the USDP, your organization is effectively compliant with privacy regulations in multiple jurisdictions, reducing the need to assess state-by-state applicability.
Relationship between the GDPR and the USDP
Although they are aimed at different regions, the GDPR and USDP are aligned in purpose and practice. Some notable similarities include:
- Both frameworks aim to strengthen data security and build trust
- Neither framework offers a “certification”
From a procedural perspective, both frameworks emphasize users’ data privacy rights and require organizations to develop processes, policies, and procedures to protect individual privacy. The USDP also mirrors GDPR by offering a unified set of principles, such as transparency and data minimization, which guide compliance requirements across multiple states.
Despite these similarities, the USDP and GDPR have several differences that set them apart.
“
The GDPR is a single comprehensive framework applicable across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). In contrast, data privacy in the United States is characterized by a fragmented array of federal, state, and local regulations. Vanta's USDP framework is designed to address these diverse US requirements, ensuring comprehensive compliance.”
GDPR and USDP: 4 main differences
The GDPR and USDP have several differences from a legal perspective, such as:
- Mandatory status
- Scope
- Enforcement
- Individual protections
1. Mandatory status
The GDPR is mandatory for all in-scope organizations. Non-compliance with the GDPR can result in substantial financial penalties (up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue), corrective measures imposed by supervisory authorities, or legal action.
USDP compliance isn’t mandatory. It’s a voluntary framework intended to help organizations align with state privacy laws (which are themselves mandatory). It doesn't carry financial penalties of its own, but alignment can help you meet enforceable legal requirements and avoid fines for regulations such as the CCPA, and the OCPA.
2. Scope
The GDPR covers all organizations that monitor or handle data of people in the EU, regardless of size and industry. However, organization-specific requirements can still vary depending on the scale and nature of processing.
For example, some controller organizations may be exempt from appointing a data protection officer (DPO), but are still liable for fines on account of other violations.
The USDP is designed to align with several US state laws, which typically include regulation-specific thresholds or exemptions based on factors like industry, size, or volume of personal data. This means that not all organizations in the US are automatically in scope. That said, the USDP itself does not differentiate between organizations, recommending the same set of controls to all.
{{cta_withimage14="/cta-blocks"}} | GDPR compliance checklist
3. Enforcement
The GDPR has a central enforcement body, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), whose main purpose is to ensure consistent application of the GDPR across EU Member States. However, specific enforcement duties still fall on each state’s data protection authority, the body responsible for receiving breach reports, investigating violations, and issuing fines.
The USDP doesn’t have any enforcement body, but the underlying state laws that it supports are enforceable by local agencies, such as the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA).
4. Individual protections
The key tenets of the GDPR are data subject protection, accountability, and transparency. It establishes strong safeguards for consent management, data minimization, breach reporting, and access rights as a way to ensure individuals have greater control over how their information is handled. It provides individual protections through eight data subject rights:
- Right to be informed
- Right of access
- Right to rectification
- Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”)
- Right to restriction of processing
- Right to data portability
- Right to object
- Rights related to automated decision-making, including profiling
The USDP similarly requires that organizations implement “reasonable and appropriate security measures” to safeguard personally identifiable information (PII). This includes both technical controls, such as data encryption, and established processes, like data minimization.
However, a key distinction lies in the definition of personal data. The GDPR applies broadly to all personal data, while some US regulations may exclude certain types of data, such as employee or B2B data.
{{cta_withimage11="/cta-blocks"}}| The US data privacy checklist
What should your GDPR and USDP compliance strategy be?
Your choice of compliance ultimately depends on your industry and customer expectations. If your organization is based in the US and provides services in the EU, you’re in scope for both the GDPR and US federal and state data privacy laws.
A practical approach would be to use the GDPR as your baseline. Implementing its controls, particularly around data minimization and purpose limitation, means your organization will meet or exceed what’s required by the USDP. So, GDPR can give you a head start on the USDP compliance process and eliminate potential redundancies.
At the same time, the USDP serves as advisory guidance that helps you shift away from ticking off state-specific checklists to meeting the requirements of modern US privacy laws. This reduces the complexity of multi-jurisdiction obligations and keeps your compliance posture agile.
Complying with both frameworks is a big win and can steadily build customer trust, since it demonstrates that your organization is serious about data security on both domestic and global fronts.
{{cta_simple19="/cta-blocks"}} | USDP product page
Streamline GDPR and USDP compliance with Vanta
With Vanta, organizations can tailor and scale their compliance program with step-by-step guidance and exclusive support resources. We offer out-of-the-box support for both the GDPR and the USDP.
Our GDPR solution offers dedicated checklists and workflows to operationalize compliance requirements. You can save countless teamwide hours you’d otherwise spend on legal research, external consultations, and planning. Here’s a snapshot of our key GDPR features:
- GDPR-specific training modules
- Automated evidence collection powered by 400+ integrations
- A single dashboard for everything GDPR
- Real-time monitoring with instant report generation
- Pre-built policy templates and a customization tool
You can expect a similar guided experience with our USDP compliance automation product. Today, Vanta is the only cloud-based compliance platform that streamlines multi-state USDP compliance into a single, continuously updated framework. You save time and money by focusing on just one compliance roadmap and still reduce the risk of state-specific compliance gaps.
Schedule a custom demo today to discuss your compliance needs with our experts.
{{cta_simple19="/cta-blocks"}} | GDPR product page
FAQs
1. Does USDP apply to companies outside the US?
No, US state privacy laws (and, by extension, the USDP) mostly apply to organizations operating within a specific state that meet the set criteria. That said, non-US companies handling US data may still need to follow applicable US privacy laws.
2. Can one compliance program cover GDPR and USDP together?
Yes, a single well-designed compliance program can align with both GDPR and USDP, using GDPR as a baseline and USDP to cover US-specific requirements.
3. Does the USDP require a formal audit?
No, the USDP doesn’t require a format audit. Organizations can self-attest or use the Vanta platform to validate controls and demonstrate compliance.
A note from Vanta: Vanta is not a law firm, and this article does not constitute or contain legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. When determining your obligations and compliance with respect to relevant laws and regulations, you should consult a licensed attorney.
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