Data privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA included transition periods for businesses to become compliant and avoid fines. However, those days are firmly in the past. Regulators expect your company to have achieved data compliance yesterday. If you're still lagging behind, or want to stay ahead of the latest developments, you need to look to the future.
Compliance Challenges
To understand why automation is so valuable in the compliance conversation, it helps to examine the complications that many businesses face when trying to become compliant. Compliance isn't a switch that you flip. It often calls for a complete overhaul of how you handle data.
Laws like the GDPR impose strict rules as to how you can store and transfer data, in addition to other requirements. Another factor that complicates matters is that many countries have yet to pass comprehensive data legislation, including the United States. This has led to a patchwork of laws around the world.
Fortunately, when you have an automated platform, you'll know what data needs to be compliant. You'll be able to manage it all in seconds, and when laws update, so will your data policies. It really can be that simple.
Data Management
Data privacy laws require that data containing personal identify information remain encrypted. They recommend preventing access except for a select few authorized users as well. Failure to abide by these rules can lead to fines if a breach occurs.
You also have to respect citizens' new data rights. If a consumer asks you to delete their information, you have to be able to respond to that request in a timely fashion and execute the request thoroughly. How can you be sure that you've fulfilled a request if you don't know your data?
Manually digging through your files to meet these requests is nigh impossible. With an automated system, you could instantly search for your customer's data and handle it appropriately. You can even apply restrictions to all of your sensitive files in seconds.
Transfer Procedures
The problems don't stop with data storage. You also have to consider the rules regarding data transfers. The GDPR, for example, prohibits data transfers to countries that don't offer similar protections unless the business on the receiving end promises to respect GDPR rules.
Again, manually locking down files one by one is problematic, especially when dealing with a database that may contain a mix of information. Automation is the key to ensuring that files don't sneak out of your organization without proper authorization.
Furthermore, you want a system that can find any rogue files hiding where they shouldn't be. You could accidentally transfer files without realizing it if you have personal records in a folder unawares. Automation prevents this from happening in the first place, making your business more efficient and avoiding problems.
Evolving Legal Landscape
All of this would have been challenging enough, but it get seven more complicated. We're in a global transition towards universal data privacy rights. Nevertheless, only one international agreement exists today:The GDPR. Some countries have passed data privacy laws, while others have yet to even debate the issue.
The current legal landscape looks like a half-finished jigsaw puzzle. Pieces are in place, but they don't yet fit together, and the picture is far from complete. It's entirely possible that data compliance will have a completely different meaning in the next five to ten years.
This hodgepodge of laws makes compliance cumbersome. While one solution is simply to apply the rules of the strictest regimen available, this can complicate data sharing between organizations that aren't following your stringent protocols. Automation is key here. If you have an intelligent platform designed from the ground up with compliance in mind, you can pluck a set of rules from the list and apply it instantly to any file.
The Solution: Automation
Automation is truly the only solution to all of these issues. When your automated platform is constantly looking at your data, it'll help you understand it better. When you know your data, you can then apply compliance policies directly to your data with the confidence that you haven't missed a single record.
Automation also allows you to find your data, no matter where it resides. In addition, you can keep it at an arm's reach, and access it regularly.Automation keeps you compliant long after the initial adoption process. It really is a “set it and forget it” solution. If that sounds like what your business needs to reach full compliance, then Aparavi is the platform for you. Schedule a demo today to see how Aparavi can make compliance easy instead of a hassle.