Box and Dropbox rival Egnyte is aiming to capitalise on Europe's strict new data laws

egnyte ceo vineet jain

A Silicon Valley enterprise software company that competes with the likes of Box and DropBox is hoping to capitalise on Europe's strict new data protection laws.

Founded in an office next to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, Egnyte said on Thursday that it has introduced a new feature to its platform that will help businesses to comply with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will be enforced in the UK on May 25, 2018.

Egnyte, which has been backed by Google Ventures (now known as GV) said the new software will be able to detect personally identifiable information (PII) — such as national ID numbers, bank account numbers, and national healthcare numbers — that has been stored inappropriately. If a company has stored such information in a public folder, for example, then it will be alerted and told to move it into a more secure file.

Companies that breach GDPR regulation will face fines of up to £20 million in the UK.

Rival companies like Box and Dropbox have also taken steps to ensure their platforms can identify documents that contain PII but Egnyte claims that it is the first to comply with all 28 EU member states (each country has different rules about what data can be stored where).

"As businesses grow their global footprint they are responsible for managing customer PII in a variety of different countries, which presents a number of difficulties when it comes to following proper security and compliance regulations, like the GDPR," said Kris Lahiri, data protection officer and cofounder at Egnyte, in a statement.

"Our goal is to simplify compliance by providing a single platform with easy-to-use tools that businesses can trust to securely manage all of their content, in whatever country they are doing business in."

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