GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is the European Union's data-protection law, setting requirements for lawful processing of personal data: a legal basis (often consent), data-subject rights (access, deletion, portability), purpose limitation, breach notification, and significant fines for violations. It applies to any service handling EU residents' data, wherever the company is based.
For an OTT platform, which collects accounts, viewing behavior, payment, and device data, GDPR shapes consent flows, analytics and ad-tracking practices, data retention, and vendor agreements. It works together with viewing-specific rules like the VPPA and regional laws such as California's CCPA, making privacy engineering a cross-cutting requirement across personalization, advertising, and analytics.
The handbook · 7 volumes
Fora Soft Video Engineering Handbook
GDPR shapes what viewing and playback data a streaming service may collect, how long it keeps it, and how a viewer can delete it. The seven volumes cover the video stack; for GDPR-aware analytics start with Volume 3 on players and QoE monitoring, then Volume 1 on encoding, with delivery and CDN logs in Volume 2. Written by Nikolay Sapunov, CEO at Fora Soft.
Launching in the EU and unsure your player analytics meet GDPR?
We will map the personal data your apps and CDN logs collect and send an engineering plan for consent, retention, and deletion. 250+ video products shipped since 2005.
