Our lives are getting more connected to the internet every day, whether we’re on social media or shopping online. While this makes things easier, it also puts our privacy is at risk. In 2020, each person created about 1.7 MB of data every second. This includes info about what we do online and personal info like social security numbers. More and more people are worried about their privacy, with 86 percent saying it’s important to them. (Source: Techjury.net).
Even though GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) has been in place since 2018, many companies lag behind. They are unsure about to handle employee, customer and other private data. Pinteg helps companies get their arms around it.
Patrik Persson, the CEO of Pinteg, has always had an interest in entrepreneurship. He started his first company when studying Economics in Lund, as he realized that the only way for him to understand what he was studying was to have a business of his own.
Since then, he has started several other companies, including Pinteg.
−Shortly after GDPR had been implemented and started to be enforced, says Patrik, I was contacted by an old colleague, Anders Fridlund, and his existing colleague Mattias Fernström, and the three of us started thinking about it as a new industry with new challenges. There were significant questions about how to handle the millions of customer data a company has.
Digging into GDPR
They started to delve into it to understand better.
−We realized that the way GDPR was being handled at the time might not be the right approach, he says.
The question was: How should companies handle GDPR practically?
−So far, the issue had been managed by lawyer firms, says Patrik. We felt that companies were still fumbling and needed practical assistance and smart tools. We also wanted to help individuals, consumers, who were becoming hostages. Once you accept a long agreement when you’re about to approve something the law is quickly disregarded.
This felt wrong to Patrik and his colleague.
−That’s not how it’s supposed to be, Patrik adds. The law is fair and reasonable.
The Project Became a Company
It began with Patrik and his two partners doing a lot of research and analyzing the situation.
−Among other things, we called the Data Inspection Board and asked how companies should handle GDPR, he says. They didn’t have a clear answer.
It felt increasingly urgent to find a practical solution.
−Large giants, such as Meta, have collected information about users for many years. Data is sold and disappears to third and fourth parties.
−We started out by developing a couple of simple plug-ins with external development resources, to help users understand and manage their own data and regain control over it also realized we needed to strengthen our software competence and the fourth founder was identified and entered the founder team, Per Morau.
Today, Pinteg offers a complete personal data management solution that take care of customer data and ensures GDPR compliance.
−We define ourselves as both an innovation company and a product company, in software Legal-Tech, says Patrik. We develop tech solutions and take them to market. First out is our Software as a Service solutions Fairity targeting organizations. We are also part of a research project in the privacy area. It is Sweden’s largest Privacy research project, called “Sjyst Data”. It supports the establishment of a Data Privacy ECO system in Sweden and EU.
Pinteg has been an active part in the project since 2022, working for the first certification in privacy and a privacy lab in Sweden.
Pinteg sees themselves as actors within this new data protection ecosystem.
−We can handle some parts of it, but the whole system must work, Patrik explains.
Make Companies Compliant and Consumers Safer
Pinteg’s tools are designed to give companies control over GDPR and easily become compliant. The goal is to make sure customers know what applies and that they start managing the data in a correct and controlled way following GDPR. In this way individual’s data is treated with care and their integrity is not at risk.
−The new normal is a regulated everyday life, says Patrik. Today, there are a plethora of new directives that companies must adhere to. AI ACT, NIS 2, CSRD, DORA, ISO 27,000, among others. Our product helps solve majority of what you need to keep track of according to AI ACT ISO 27, 000 for example.
Patrik compares the solution to a bookkeeping software.
−It gives you control, and you know you handle privacy data in a correct way.
The first thing Pinteg does to help customers gain control over their data is to assist with mapping and processes.
−You quickly realize that you have privacy data here and there and everywhere, says Patrik. Often you also understand that you do not handle personal data as you should.
About:
Pinteg has four founders and 7 external investors.
Patrik Persson has held various roles over the years, latest as Marketing Director for SONY IoT Business Group Europe (Internet of Things) from 2016 to 2019, including sales & marketing across Europe. He used to work for Ericsson, SONY, and Sony Ericsson ever since the telecommunications industry took off.
