GDPR Data Breach Notification Form

GDPR Data Breach Notification Form

Under GDPR Article 33, organisations must report data breaches to their supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach—unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to individuals' rights and freedoms. This GDPR Data Breach Notification Form helps your team capture the essential details quickly and consistently, ensuring you meet regulatory timelines and maintain a clear audit trail.

Why you need a structured breach reporting process

When a data breach occurs, the first hours are critical. A standardised internal reporting form ensures that your Data Protection Officer (DPO), legal team and incident response coordinators receive the right information immediately, without chasing emails or piecing together incomplete details. This template covers:

• Incident identification and timeline tracking to establish when the breach occurred and when your organisation became aware of it
• Nature and scope of the breach, including the categories of personal data affected and estimated number of data subjects
• Likely consequences and risk assessment to determine whether the breach poses a high risk requiring notification to affected individuals
• Containment and remediation measures already taken or planned, demonstrating your organisation's response

By centralising this information in Paperform, you can route submissions to the right stakeholders, trigger follow-up workflows in Stepper (such as notifying the supervisory authority or preparing external communications), and maintain a timestamped record for compliance audits.

Who this form is for

This template is designed for legal and compliance teams, Data Protection Officers, IT security managers, and risk and governance professionals operating in the EU or handling EU residents' data. It's particularly valuable for:

• SMBs and scale-ups that need to demonstrate GDPR readiness without dedicated compliance software
• In-house legal and compliance teams who want a consistent intake process for data breach incidents
• IT and security teams responsible for initial incident detection and containment, who need a clear escalation path
• Agencies and service providers managing client data and needing to report breaches promptly to clients and regulators

With Paperform's conditional logic, you can show or hide questions based on the severity and nature of the breach, keeping the form streamlined for minor incidents while capturing detailed information for high-risk breaches. Submissions can be routed to Slack, email or project management tools, and integrated with your incident response platform via Stepper, Zapier or webhooks.

Building a culture of compliance

A clear, accessible breach reporting form doesn't just help you meet regulatory deadlines—it encourages your team to escalate incidents promptly and transparently, rather than waiting until the picture is "complete." Paired with Paperform's secure, SOC 2 Type II compliant infrastructure and Stepper workflows for post-submission task management, this template gives you the foundation for a responsive, audit-ready data breach process that scales with your organisation.

Start with this template, customise the questions to match your internal escalation procedures, and ensure your team is ready to act the moment a breach is detected.