Data & Privacy Compliance Services
Every fintech and financial services company collects, processes, and stores sensitive data — customer financial information, personally identifiable information (PII), transaction records, behavioral data, and increasingly, data used to train AI models. The legal obligations around this data are expanding rapidly across federal, state, and international jurisdictions, and the consequences of non-compliance range from regulatory fines and enforcement actions to class-action litigation and catastrophic reputational damage.
FinTech Law provides data privacy and cybersecurity legal services to fintech companies, investment advisers, fund managers, and technology businesses. We help clients build privacy and data protection programs that satisfy regulatory requirements, protect customer trust, and support business operations — without creating compliance burdens that stall product development or operational efficiency.
Our Data Privacy Services
Privacy Program Design and Implementation
An effective privacy compliance program starts with understanding what data you collect, why you collect it, where it goes, who has access, and how long you keep it. FinTech Law conducts data mapping and privacy assessments to establish this baseline, then designs compliance frameworks tailored to your business model and regulatory obligations.
Our privacy program work includes drafting privacy policies and notices that meet the specific requirements of applicable laws (CCPA/CPRA, state comprehensive privacy laws, GDPR for companies with EU exposure, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act for financial institutions), establishing data subject rights request processes (access, deletion, correction, opt-out), implementing consent management frameworks, designing data retention and destruction policies, and creating vendor and third-party data sharing agreements with appropriate contractual protections.
State Privacy Law Compliance
The U.S. privacy landscape has transformed in recent years. California's CCPA and its successor the CPRA established comprehensive consumer privacy rights that set the standard for state-level regulation. Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and other states have enacted their own comprehensive privacy laws, each with distinct requirements around consumer rights, opt-out mechanisms, data protection assessments, and enforcement.
For fintech companies operating across state lines — which is nearly all of them — multi-state privacy compliance is now an operational necessity. FinTech Law helps clients identify which state laws apply to their operations, build compliance programs that satisfy multiple overlapping requirements efficiently, and maintain privacy practices as new state laws take effect.
Financial Services Privacy (GLBA and Regulation S-P)
Financial institutions, investment advisers, and broker-dealers face additional privacy obligations under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the SEC's Regulation S-P. These regulations require financial services firms to provide initial and annual privacy notices to customers, implement safeguards for customer financial information, limit sharing of nonpublic personal information with third parties, and maintain information security programs.
The SEC's recent amendments to Regulation S-P significantly expanded the obligations for covered institutions, including incident response and customer notification requirements. FinTech Law advises financial services clients on compliance with both the baseline GLBA/Reg S-P requirements and the enhanced obligations under the amended rule. This work intersects directly with our SEC compliance practice.
GDPR and International Privacy
Fintech companies with customers, operations, or data flows involving the European Union or United Kingdom must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR. These regulations impose strict requirements around lawful basis for processing, data subject rights, cross-border data transfers, data protection impact assessments, and data breach notification.
FinTech Law advises companies on GDPR applicability, lawful basis analysis, privacy policy compliance, data processing agreements, and the mechanisms available for international data transfers (Standard Contractual Clauses, adequacy decisions, and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework).
Cybersecurity Compliance
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT concern — it is a legal and regulatory requirement. The SEC has adopted cybersecurity disclosure and incident reporting rules for public companies and investment advisers. State laws increasingly mandate specific cybersecurity controls. And industry standards (NIST Cybersecurity Framework, SOC 2, ISO 27001) have become practical baselines that regulators, customers, and business partners expect.
FinTech Law advises on cybersecurity program design that satisfies regulatory requirements and aligns with industry standards. Our cybersecurity work includes incident response plan development, vendor security assessment frameworks, cybersecurity policy drafting (acceptable use, access control, encryption, remote work), regulatory notification requirements in the event of a data breach, and coordination with technical teams and forensic investigators during and after a security incident.
Data Breach Response
When a data breach occurs, the legal response must be fast, coordinated, and compliant with notification obligations that vary by jurisdiction and the type of data compromised. FinTech Law assists with breach response planning, legal analysis of notification obligations (which can involve dozens of state laws, SEC rules, and potentially GDPR requirements simultaneously), drafting notification letters, coordinating with law enforcement and regulators, and managing potential litigation exposure.
The time to develop your breach response plan is before a breach occurs. We help clients build incident response frameworks that can be activated quickly when needed.
Data Privacy for Fintech Companies
Fintech companies face heightened privacy and data protection considerations:
Financial data sensitivity. Customer financial information (account numbers, transaction history, credit data, investment portfolios) is among the most sensitive categories of personal data. Regulatory expectations for protection are correspondingly high.
AI and machine learning. Companies using AI to process customer data — for underwriting, personalization, fraud detection, or advisory services — face additional privacy questions around automated decision-making, algorithmic transparency, data minimization, and the use of personal data for model training. We advise on the privacy implications of AI deployment in financial services.
Open banking and data aggregation. The CFPB's open banking rules and the growing ecosystem of financial data aggregation create new data sharing relationships that require careful contractual and compliance management.
Cross-border operations. Fintech companies increasingly serve customers across jurisdictions, triggering multi-regime privacy compliance obligations. A U.S. fintech with EU customers must comply with both U.S. state privacy laws and GDPR — with different and sometimes conflicting requirements.
