{"id":8926,"date":"2025-03-07T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=8926"},"modified":"2025-03-26T18:40:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T10:40:02","slug":"data-privacy-compliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ap\/blog\/data-privacy-compliance\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Privacy Pitfalls? Not With These 5 Steps to Compliance Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Organisations are diving into deeper customer relationships and more personalised experiences, often with the help of generative AI<\/a>. As they do, personal data and data privacy compliance becomes a critical part of that strategy. In fact, 94% of business leaders believe their organisations should be getting more value from its data<\/a> \u2014 and it\u2019s no secret that good AI needs good data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in this fast-moving technical landscape, using personal data requires extra special handling. This is especially true when it comes to building and maintaining a trusted relationship with your customers, while remaining compliant with the growing number of regulations around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why data privacy compliance is non-negotiable<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Law No. 27 of 2022 on Personal Data Protection (PDP Law)<\/a> in Indonesia, Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)<\/a> in Singapore, Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)<\/a> in Malaysia, set standards for data protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organisations face growing pressure to protect individual privacy rights while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. At the same time, consumers are more aware and concerned about how their personal information is collected, used, and safeguarded. By strengthening privacy and compliance frameworks, businesses can build trust with consumers and reduce legal risks and potential fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how do you keep customer data secure and protected while staying compliant with global regulations? Here are five steps to help you strengthen data privacy and compliance in your organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Guard what matters most<\/h2>\n\t\t\t

From passwords to pixels, make sure that your organization is on top of the latest data privacy laws and regulations. See how on Trailhead, Salesforce\u2019s free online learning platform.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n

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Data Privacy<\/p>\n\t\t\t

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1. Understand the data you have \u2014 and classify it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Categorising data by sensitivity \u2014 such as personal information, financial data, or health records \u2014 is crucial for effective data management and protection. It\u2019s vital to understand what a piece of data is, how it can be used, and the protections around it. In turn, that allows you to implement targeted security measures and access controls that align with regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proper data classification also helps pinpoint where sensitive information resides within an organisation. It sets you up to apply appropriate safeguards, such as encryption, pseudonymisation, or anonymisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This clear classification not only maintains compliance with data protection laws but also supports quick responses to data subject access requests, sticking to the principles of data minimisation and purpose limitation, all while creating a trusted relationship with your customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salesforce provides a free data classification<\/a> tool that simplifies the process of classifying every standard and custom field, helping you identify your most sensitive data and incorporate it into your security and privacy policies.curity and privacy policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Audit and update your access controls<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With your data classified, you can now assess who in your organisation should have access to what data. Audit your access controls and determine whether access rights are appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check if any accidental or intentional over-permissioning occurred, and review and update access permissions based on employee roles, data sensitivity, and regulatory requirements. Doing so can mitigate risks associated with data breaches and non-compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By proving the process of access control management, you\u2019re prepared for a number of global regulatory inspections or audits while ensuring only those who absolutely need access to sensitive data can see it. You can manage access controls effectively by using tools that allow you to set permissions at various levels, ensuring that only authorised individuals can access sensitive data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salesforce allows you to manage access<\/a> at a user, objective, and field level using the permissions and access settings. This approach helps maintain security and compliance<\/a> across your organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. De-identify data in your testing environment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One way companies experience data breaches is by using real data in their testing environments. Everyone wants realistic data to test their application. But by anonymising or pseudonymising sensitive information, organisations can simulate real-world scenarios without compromising individuals\u2019 privacy rights or experiencing a data breach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This practice ensures that any data classified as personally identifiable information (PII) in the first step (such as names, addresses, and social security numbers), is not exposed during software testing, reducing the risk of data breaches or unauthorised access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

De-identification is key to data minimisation because it ensures you use only the necessary data for testing. This limits the risk of data exposure and keeps you in line with privacy laws. By using solid de-identification techniques and following ethical data practices, you can protect sensitive information and build stronger trust with your customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solutions that protect sensitive data in secure testing environments, like Data Mask<\/a>, are available to assist in de-identifying data. These tools can help you create policies to mask or replace sensitive information with non-identifiable data \u2014 using methods like random characters, similarly mapped words, pattern-based masking, or even deleted data. Pairing these tools with data classification (mentioned in the first step) ensures all your sensitive data is included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, consider solutions that provide complete visibility into your testing environments and manage security. With tools like Security Center<\/a>, you can centrally monitor, view, and manage your security health across multiple environments from a single platform, making it easier to maintain a strong compliance and security posture with actionable insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. Set up monitoring and alerts on sensitive data <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With your data classified, access controls in place, and apps tested for privacy compliance, it\u2019s time to set up monitoring, logging, and alerting systems to keep everything secure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking and logging user activities lets you keep an eye on access patterns, spot anomalies, and respond quickly to potential security issues. Proactive and real-time alerts can help you catch and block unwanted activity and can stop data leaks before they happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By logging all of the actions in your system, you can research issues, learn from past behaviour, and improve monitoring management. Logging also sets you up to provide evidence of compliance during regulatory inspections or in response to data subject access requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organisations can use toolsets to enhance compliance with data regulations and ensure data privacy. With tools like Event Monitoring<\/a>, organisations can monitor security, track application performance, and glean product intelligence insights using event logs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to have solutions that proactively find security threats and respond effectively, respond to audits with ease by storing and querying event data using SOQL<\/a>, and stay on top of compliance requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n