Privacy management software startup Osano Inc. today announced a new feature designed to automate the identification of vendors.

Called the Osano Vendor Directory, the new feature addresses the issue where organizations need to identify vendors and build an inventory to manage vendor risk. The company argues that, typically, privacy professionals have had to identify vendors manually through a complex process by meeting individually with information technology and functional managers.

Vendor Directory expedites this time-consuming process by automating vendor identification and empowering privacy professionals to start managing vendor privacy risks immediately, according to the company. It aims to help users manage vendor privacy risks more effectively by automating this task.

The new feature allows users to leverage other capabilities in the Osano Privacy Platform, such as Cookie Consent and Subject Rights Management, to automate the discovery of cookies, scripts and iframes on a website, adding associated vendors to the user’s vendor inventory. The new feature also automatically adds data stores added to Subject Rights Management’s data store inventory to the vendor inventory.

In addition, Osano also provides a unique privacy score via its privacy vendor risk management feature, helping businesses quickly identify high-risk vendors. The feature uses a scoring system that is continually updated by a team of global privacy experts to reflect the latest regulations and vendor practices, enabling organizations to monitor their vendors’ privacy posture continuously.

“Creating a safer and more secure digital world for everyone requires proactive management of vendor privacy risks,” co-founder and Chief Executive Arlo Gilbert said ahead of the announcement. “Osano empowers privacy professionals to automate vendor discovery, detect risks quicker and effectively monitor vendor privacy posture over time.”

Osano is a venture capital-backed startup that has raised $19.4 million to date, according to Crunchbase. Investors include LiveOak Venture Partners LLC, Jump Capital LLC, Next Coast Ventures LLC and TDF Ventures LLC.

Photo: Osano