GDPR compliance
This page covers how Zulip interacts with the EU's landmark GDPR
legislation; you can read the
Zulip Cloud privacy policy for our
general privacy policies.
What is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation is a wide-ranging law designed
to protect the privacy of individuals in the European Union (EU) and
give them control over how their personal data is collected,
processed, and used. The law applies to any company that collects or
processes the data of European consumers.
Controllers and processors
There are two key relationships that are defined in the GDPR. As a
customer of Zulip Cloud, you operate as the controller when using our
products and services. You have the responsibility for ensuring that
the personal data you are collecting is being processed in a lawful
manner as described above and that you are using processors, such as
Zulip Cloud, that are committed to handling the data in a compliant
manner.
Zulip Cloud is considered a data processor. We act on the
instructions of the controller (you). Similar to controllers,
processors are expected to enumerate how they handle personal data,
which we have outlined in this document and the legal documents listed
below. As a processor, we rely on our customers to ensure that there
is a lawful basis for processing.
Processors may leverage other third-parties in the processing of
personal data. These entities are commonly referred to as
sub-processors. For example, Kandra Labs leverages cloud service
providers like Amazon Web Services and Mailgun to host Zulip Cloud.
How Zulip supports GDPR compliance
We’re committed to the compliance of all parties including you,
third-parties, and us.
-
Zulip Cloud: To deliver the Zulip Cloud service, Kandra Labs, Inc. acts as
a compliant data processor, with each of our customers acting as the data
controller. Kandra Labs receives personal data from our customers in the
context of providing our Zulip Cloud team chat services to the customer.
-
Self-hosted deployments: Kandra Labs also acts as a data processor to
deliver the Mobile Push Notification Service, which uses the same
hosting infrastructure and terms of service as Zulip Cloud. The on-premises
section of this page discusses how the Zulip
on-premises software works in relation to GDPR compliance.
A Data Processing Addendum
(DPA)
is incorporated into Zulip's Terms of
Service.
Zulip Cloud's subprocessors
To support delivery of our Services, Kandra Labs, Inc. may engage and
use data processors with access to certain Customer Data (each, a
"Subprocessor"). This section provides important information about
the identity, location and role of each Subprocessor. Terms used on
this page but not defined have the meaning set forth in Zulip's Terms
of Service or superseding written agreement between Customer and
Kandra Labs (the "Agreement").
Third parties
Zulip currently uses third party Subprocessors to provide
infrastructure services, and to help us provide customer support and
email notifications. Prior to engaging any third party Subprocessor,
we perform diligence to evaluate their privacy, security and
confidentiality practices.
Subprocessors
Zulip Cloud may use the following Subprocessors to host Customer Data
or provide infrastructure that helps with delivery and operation of
our Services:
GDPR compliance with Zulip Cloud
The following features of Zulip are useful to know about when
responding to a request from one of your users in relation to the
GDPR:
- A Zulip user can change their profile information, delete their
messages, uploaded files, etc., directly within the Zulip web app.
- You can use the organization users
panel to deactivate users, edit or delete their account details,
etc.
- For complying with access requests, you'll want to start with that
user's Zulip profile, which you can access from the right sidebar.
- The Zulip Cloud export supports exporting
all the data related to a Zulip user or organization.
- The Zulip REST API lets you
automate your processes for handling GDPR requests.
Contact support@zulip.com for
any assistance related to this topic.
GDPR compliance on-premises
Compliance is often simpler when running software on-premises, since
you can have complete control over how your organization uses the data
you collect.
In addition to the features described above that are available in
Zulip Cloud (which are also available on-premises), the following tools
may be useful:
- The Zulip server comes with a command-line tool,
manage.py export_single_user, which is a variant of the main server
export tool, that exports a single Zulip
user's account details, preferences, channel subscriptions, and message
history in a structured JSON format.
- The Django management shell (
manage.py shell) and database shell
(manage.py dbshell) allows you to query, access, edit, and delete
data directly.
There's a lot more that goes into GDPR compliance, including securing
your server infrastructure responsibly, internal policies around
access, logging, and backups, etc. If you need detailed guidance, we
recommend contacting support@zulip.com; our paid support contracts
include assistance with understanding GDPR compliance with Zulip.