Before you launch a survey to respondents in the European Union, your account needs a GDPR compliance status. This article covers what GDPR is, where to find your status, and how to take, retake, download, or delegate the compliance audit.
In This Article
- What is GDPR?
- Who Can Open the GDPR Page
- Checking Your GDPR Compliance Status
- Taking or Retaking the Audit
- Downloading Your Answers
- Delegating the Audit to a Colleague
What is GDPR?
In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into effect in the European Union. The new privacy laws have a fundamental impact on how organizations handle data. The GDPR modernizes data privacy laws by replacing the previous EU Data Protection Directive.
Online surveys are included in these protections. While aytm keeps surveys anonymous from personal identifiers such as name, address, and email, we do collect demographic information as well as any data inputted from a Panel or List Survey that is protected under these laws.
The GDPR adheres to seven key principles aimed at changing the way we treat and perceive personal data. Read more about GDPR and the compliance process in this blog post, or review our EU Privacy Policy.
Who Can Open the GDPR Page
Who can open the GDPR page depends on how your account is set up rather than on your role:
- On a single-team account (or a personal account with just you)—everyone in the account. Team admins and researchers alike see the GDPR page, and there's no separate permission to grant.
- On a multi-team account—account admins only. Team admins, researchers and followers don't see it, whichever team they're on.
If you don't have access, the GDPR entry won't appear in your Account menu or sidebar, and following a direct link opens your Profile page instead. Ask an account admin, or have them send you the delegation link—anyone can complete the audit from that link, whether or not they can open this page. That's what the hand-off is for.
Checking Your GDPR Compliance Status
From your Dashboard, click the ACCOUNT tab and select GDPR, or click GDPR in the left sidebar.
The page header reads "GDPR compliance status" followed by your current state. Your status controls whether you can launch surveys to respondents in the European Union. There are three states:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unknown | You haven't completed a compliance audit yet. The page asks "Are you GDPR Compliant?" Take the audit to set your status. |
| Non-compliant | Your most recent audit found you're not compliant ("You are NOT GDPR Compliant!"). You won't be able to launch surveys to EU countries until that changes. |
| Compliant | Your most recent audit confirmed compliance ("You are GDPR Compliant!"), so you're clear to launch EU-targeted surveys. |
Each state shows a short explanation with a Read more link to the full details.
If You're Non-Compliant
Retake the audit once your policies are in order. If you're not sure what needs to change, reach out to support@aytm.com and we can put you in touch with our data security officer to discuss your compliance status.
Taking or Retaking the Audit
You set your compliance status by completing a short compliance audit that opens in a window right on the page. Your status updates automatically when you finish, based on your answers.
- If you haven't taken the audit yet, click Start survey ("Take our quick survey to find out!").
- Once you have a status, the button becomes Retake survey now ("Take our 5-7 minute survey to communicate any changes you made to your policies"); use it whenever your policies change.
💡 Tip: The compliance audit works best on a larger screen. On a narrow phone screen, clicking Start survey or Retake survey now may show a message that the survey is too complex for small screens—switch to a tablet, laptop, or desktop to complete it.
Downloading Your Answers
When your status is compliant, you can download a copy of your audit answers.
- Click Download answers.
- A spinner appears while your file is prepared. This can take a few minutes.
- When it's ready, your browser downloads a CSV named
aytm-gdpr-YYYY-MM-DD.csv(the date is in UTC).
⚠️ Note: If the file isn't ready after about five minutes, the download stops—just click Download answers again to retry.
Delegating the Audit to a Colleague
If someone else in your organization owns GDPR decisions—your legal or privacy team, for example—you can hand the audit off without giving them access to your aytm login.
- Find the section that begins "Not the GDPR lead? Copy this link and forward it to the right person".
- Click Copy URL to copy the private link. (The button briefly shows "✓ Copied!")
- Send the link to your colleague. They open it in any browser and complete the audit—no aytm sign-in required.
When they finish, your compliance status updates to reflect their answers. The link stays valid until the audit is completed.