CCPA Compliance Vendors

CCPA Software Providers and Consultants Explained

While many businesses succeed in tackling CCPA compliance on their own, far more use vendors to help. CCPA compliance vendors generally fit into one of two categories: privacy consultants or software providers. Both deserve a place in your strategy, depending on your needs. Let’s examine each of them:

Software Providers

Software providers are a type of compliance vendor that help companies address a wider or narrower spectrum of privacy compliance needs, depending on the tools they offer. For example, vendors like OneTrust, TrustArc and Ethyca provide tools to assist broadly with CCPA and GDPR compliance. Their offerings address challenges like vendor assessment, data mapping, cookie consent, privacy request management and data breach response. This type of vendor is suited for organizations with complex needs or that have no existing compliance program. Other vendors like Termageddon, ClearOps, and CCPA Toll Free offer point solutions to assist with challenges like keeping your privacy policy updated, streamlining vendor management and accepting data subject requests via the legally required methods (a toll-free number and webform). These vendors often provide best-of-breed solutions to specific problems at a budget-friendly price. 

Implementing CCPA software from either a broad or a narrow solution provider requires a mix of your staff’s time and help from the software provider’s implementation team. Broader solutions require more of your staff time and more vendor resources to roll them out. Privacy point solutions require less involvement from your staff and vendor customer support. Many point solutions can be rolled out in one to two days with little technical knowledge required. Either way, software providers in the privacy management space generally provide excellent support for their solutions.

Privacy Consultants

Privacy consultants are a different type of compliance vendor and include law firms, traditional management consulting firms, and firms with boutique privacy practices. They take a hands-on approach to helping you design and implement solutions for GDPR, CCPA and other privacy laws. 

Privacy consultants usually work in phases, with the first phase being the design or “discovery” phase. In this phase, they interview your staff about your current practices, create a data map, perform a “gap analysis” and recommend a strategy for coming into compliance. Their work product is typically a report or an implementation roadmap.

The second phase of working with a privacy consultant is the “implementation phase,” where they design new business processes, e.g., to intake and respond to CCPA privacy requests. They also document the processes they design, help you roll them out, and train your staff in their use. While privacy consultants provide a “white glove” experience, it still takes a significant amount of time from your staff to successfully implement a data privacy program. 

How to Choose a Compliance Vendor

How can you decide which type of vendor is right for you? If you prefer a self service or lower cost approach, software providers are definitely the right place to start. Look for software vendors that include transparent pricing at the top of their homepage. This is a sure sign that what they offer will be easy to implement because it does not require heavy customization to work. 

If you prefer a highly customized solution, using a privacy consultant is your best choice. While they charge a premium, they have great knowledge about what other businesses are doing in the market and can help you implement a privacy program that fits your industry and even your unique circumstances. Privacy consultants, if they do not provide their own software, can also provide unbiased recommendations of software solutions that will fit your needs. 

At CCPA Toll Free, we often see clients begin their CCPA compliance journey with software providers, and then connect with privacy consultants to confirm their privacy programs do not contain significant gaps. This means that often, a mix of software providers and privacy consultants is the best approach. 

Can CCPA Toll Free help? 

If you need an easy-to-implement, low-cost solution for CCPA compliance, CCPA Toll Free is here to help you. Starting at $29/month, we provide you with a complete privacy request management solution. Our solution helps you accept privacy requests via both of CCPA’s required methods—an interactive web form and toll-free number. We also help you respond to requests efficiently and on time while automatically documenting your compliance. Contact sales@ccpatollfree.com to tell us about your needs or call us with CCPA questions any time at 1-844-ALL-CCPA.