GDPR and CCPA Compliance for SaaS Companies: Answer Every Data Request Across Your Stack
A SaaS company holds a user's data in more places than anyone remembers: the product database, the warehouse, Stripe, the support desk, the analytics pipeline, and every synced copy in between. Obtainer finds where a person's data lives across that stack, compiles it into one reviewable manifest, and drafts the access or deletion response, so a growing user base does not turn every privacy request into an engineering fire drill.
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Helps you comply, not legal advice
In short
SaaS companies face data subject access and deletion requests from two directions: their own customers as consumers, and the end users of the businesses they serve, where the SaaS acts as a processor. Both the GDPR and, since the CPRA took effect on January 1, 2023, the CCPA apply to a SaaS business that handles the personal data of EU or California residents, and the deadlines are the same one month under the GDPR and 45 days under the CCPA. The hard part for SaaS is not the law, it is the architecture: a single user's personal data is scattered across a production database, a data warehouse, a billing provider, a help desk, product analytics, and the backups and exports of each. Obtainer discovers where that user's data lives across your connected systems, compiles it into one source-system manifest, drafts a deadline-safe response, and tracks the clock per request, so answering a DSAR does not mean paging an engineer to write a one-off query every time. For deletion requests it separates what you may keep under a statutory exception from what must go, and it keeps a dated record of what was erased. Nothing is disclosed or deleted automatically; a human reviews and approves at a gate, so you stay in control. Obtainer helps you comply. It is not legal advice, so scope, exemptions, and any processor-versus-controller call stay with your team. Self-serve from $49/mo, no sales call.
Why it fits
SaaS founders, engineering, and ops teams who face a rising volume of user access and deletion requests and want discovery and drafting handled across their stack, self-serve, without buying an enterprise governance suite.
Discovery across the whole stack
A user's data is not in one table. Obtainer surfaces where it lives across your product database, warehouse, billing, and support tools, and compiles it into one manifest, so nothing is missed because it sat in a system nobody thought to check.
No one-off engineering per request
Instead of paging an engineer to write a bespoke query for every DSAR, the gather runs through one workflow, which frees product and data teams to ship instead of servicing privacy tickets.
Priced for a startup, not a suite
Self-serve from $49/mo with pricing on the page. There is no annual floor to clear before you can answer your first request, unlike governance platforms that start in the five figures.
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Questions
Common questions about this
Does the GDPR apply to a US SaaS company?
Yes, if you offer goods or services to people in the EU or monitor their behavior, regardless of where your company is incorporated. Article 3 makes the GDPR extraterritorial, so a US-only entity with EU users is in scope. The practical trigger for most SaaS businesses is signups from EU countries and analytics that track EU visitors, not having an EU office.
Is my SaaS a controller or a processor for a DSAR?
Usually both, in different directions. You are a controller for your own customers' account data, billing records, and support history, and typically a processor for the end-user data your customers put into your product. A request from your own customer is yours to answer. A request about data your customer controls is normally routed to them, and your contract should say how fast you assist. That distinction is a legal call for your team, not a setting in a tool.
How long does a SaaS company have to respond to a data request?
One month under the GDPR, extendable by two more for complex or numerous requests, and 45 days under the CCPA and most US state laws, extendable once by another 45 days with notice. Florida allows only a 15-day extension and Iowa allows 90 days plus 45. Building your process to the shortest applicable clock keeps you safe under the rest.
Do we have to delete a user's data from backups?
Regulators generally accept that immediate erasure from backup and archive media is not always technically possible, provided you document the retention window, put the data beyond further use in the meantime, and ensure it is not restored into production. What you cannot do is treat backups as a reason to leave live copies in place. Record the decision and the schedule, because that record is the evidence you acted.
What about user data in our data warehouse and analytics tools?
It counts. A row in Snowflake or BigQuery tied to a user, a session record in a product analytics tool, and an enriched profile in a marketing platform are all personal data if they can be linked back to a person. This is where most SaaS access responses come up short, because the production database is the only place anyone thinks to look. Discovery has to cover the derived and synced copies, not just the source of truth.
Do we need a DPA with every subprocessor?
Yes. If a vendor processes personal data on your behalf, the GDPR requires a written data processing agreement, and your own customers' DPAs will usually require you to maintain a current subprocessor list and notify them of changes. Keeping that list accurate is also how you know where to look when an access request arrives, which is why the compliance chore and the operational need are the same task.
Run a data subject access request end to end
Obtainer finds where a person's data lives across your systems, compiles it into one manifest, drafts the deadline-safe response, and tracks the GDPR and CCPA clock. You review, redact, and approve what gets disclosed. Helps you comply; not legal advice.