The Belgian compliance challenge
Belgium has a unique position in the European GDPR landscape. With three official languages, a federal and regional regulatory structure, and a thriving SME economy, Belgian business owners face compliance challenges that generic European tools often miss.
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (GBA, or APD in French) has been increasingly active in enforcement. Inspections are no longer limited to large corporations. Small businesses, medical practices, retail shops, and service providers are all receiving attention. The fines may be smaller than the headline-grabbing cases, but for an SME, even a few thousand euros plus the reputational damage is significant.
The problem is not that Belgian SMEs do not care about privacy. It is that the compliance process has traditionally been expensive, confusing, and time-consuming.
Why most compliance paths are too expensive
The standard advice for Belgian SMEs is to hire a consultant. A privacy consultant typically charges between 2,000 and 10,000 euros for an initial GDPR compliance project. That covers an assessment, documentation, and a set of policies. Ongoing support is billed separately, usually as a retainer or on an hourly basis.
For a business with 5 to 50 employees, that is a serious investment, especially when the result is a stack of documents that may already be outdated by the time you receive them. Your website changes, you switch to a new CRM, a new employee joins the team, and suddenly the consultant’s work needs updating.
The alternative, doing it yourself with free templates from the internet, sounds appealing until you realise how many moving parts are involved. A processing register alone requires mapping every activity where you handle personal data, from customer records to employee payroll. Without guidance, most business owners give up halfway through.
How GDPRWise makes it affordable
GDPRWise replaces the consultant engagement with a platform that combines AI scanning, sector expertise, and guided questions. The result is the same set of deliverables, but at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.
AI-powered website scanning
You start by entering your website URL. The GDPRWise scanner analyses your site within two minutes and detects:
- Cookies and tracking scripts (including those placed before consent)
- Third-party services like Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or HubSpot
- Forms that collect personal data
- Your business sector, based on website content
Each finding is labelled with a confidence level. “Detected” means the scanner is certain about the finding. “Needs review” means it requires your confirmation. This transparency ensures you always know where your input is needed.
Three-layer dossier model
The scan results feed into a three-layer dossier system:
- Sector foundation - a pre-built template for your industry. Whether you run an accounting firm, a physiotherapy practice, or an e-commerce shop, GDPRWise starts with the processing activities typical for your sector.
- AI scan results - the specific cookies, trackers, and data collection points found on your website are automatically mapped to the relevant processing activities.
- Guided refinement - targeted questions fill in the remaining gaps. Do you process employee data? Do you use CCTV? Do you share data with partners abroad? Each question is contextual, based on what the first two layers have already established.
This approach means you never start from a blank page, and you never have to figure out what applies to your business by reading through the full GDPR text.
Multilingual by design
Belgium runs on multiple languages, and so does GDPRWise. The platform supports Dutch, French, and English. You can:
- Complete the guided questions in your preferred language
- Generate your privacy statement, employee privacy policy, and cookie report in the language your customers and staff expect
- Switch languages within the platform without losing progress
For businesses in Brussels or along the language border, this is not a nice-to-have. It is a requirement. Your Flemish customers expect a Dutch privacy policy, your Walloon clients expect French, and your international partners may need English. GDPRWise handles all three.
Belgian regulatory context built in
GDPRWise is not a generic EU compliance tool translated into Dutch and French. The platform’s knowledge base includes Belgian-specific guidance:
- GBA enforcement priorities - what the Belgian authority is currently focusing on
- Belgian employment law intersections - where privacy obligations interact with social law, such as CCTV regulations and employee monitoring rules
- Sector-specific Belgian requirements - for healthcare (patient rights act), financial services, and education
The knowledge base is written for business owners, not lawyers. Every article explains what the rule is, why it matters, and what you need to do about it.
Pricing designed for SMEs
GDPRWise offers two options, both designed with small businesses in mind:
Free Scan - a complete GDPR dossier at no cost. You run the scan, work through the guided questions, and receive your complete dossier. This includes your processing register, privacy statement, cookie report, employee privacy policy, and action list. No account or credit card needed. The dossier is yours to keep and export.
Peace of Mind (EUR 29/month, yearly billing) - a subscription that adds continuous monitoring. GDPRWise periodically rescans your website, compares the new results with your existing dossier, and flags any changes. New cookie detected? Third-party script added by your web agency? The platform alerts you and suggests the necessary updates.
For most Belgian SMEs, the Free Scan is enough to get compliant. Peace of Mind is valuable if your website changes frequently, you work with multiple third-party tools, or you simply want the reassurance that your documentation stays current without manual effort.
The employee privacy policy advantage
One element that sets GDPRWise apart is the employee privacy policy. Belgian employers are required to inform staff about how they process personal data, covering payroll, HR files, badges, CCTV, and more. Most SMEs do not have this document.
GDPRWise generates it automatically based on your answers about HR processes. You can include it as an appendix to employment contracts, meeting your obligation without drafting anything from scratch.
From scan to compliant in hours
The typical journey for a Belgian SME on GDPRWise:
- Run the scan (2 minutes) - enter your website URL and review the findings
- Answer guided questions (1-3 hours across one or two sessions) - sector-specific, contextual questions about your business
- Review your dossier - processing register, privacy statements, cookie report, employee privacy policy, and action list are ready
- Export and implement - place your privacy statement on your website, attach the employee policy to contracts, and work through the action list
No consultant meetings, no weeks of back-and-forth, no invoices that exceed your expectations.
Enter your website URL and discover within 2 minutes what cookies, trackers, and scripts are active. No account, no credit card, and full support in Dutch, French, and English.