By Sean Butler, Director of Product Marketing at Privitar

Having efficient access to data-driven insights can be critical for any business looking to reach their goals. This is especially important in the financial services industry, where the desire to implement data-driven strategies for growth and innovation has been challenged by cumbersome data management practices, decentralized privacy governance, and mounting global privacy compliance regulations.

Organizations facing these challenges should look towards systematic and automated data privacy options to remove the friction between data sources and users while enforcing data privacy. Automating the process provides consistency, transparency, clear auditability, and reduces human error. Everything speeds up, but especially time to data.

Data privacy automation can be built into the process from the very beginning (like a vending machine for data) with a preset automation flow built right into the pipeline. This makes it easier to get data into the hands of data consumers faster.  It also makes it easier for organizations to adhere to and demonstrate adherence to industry regulations.


How automation applies to businesses that want to keep their sensitive data safe and usable

Automation changes how companies address the data request process. Specifically, automation allows organizations to broaden access to data both in terms of people who can access it as well as increasing the amount of data they have access to. Organizations should look to systems that allow them to standardize expensive parts of the data request process like the provisioning of sensitive data. This will allow them to accelerate their time to data enabling faster time to insights that drive value across the business.


Special considerations within the financial services industry

The financial services industry has a wealth of data about their customers. Leaders in the space are constantly analyzing that data to optimize their customer experience, product portfolio, assess risk, and many other aspects of the business. As organizations think about new ways to use their data one of the biggest risks is how to protect sensitive data. Automation of the execution of privacy policies and data lifecycle management will allow financial services organizations to better manage the associated risks. Associated risks are continually growing as regions around the world look to privacy with laws like GDPR and CCPA. Automating key aspects of provisioning sensitive data for analytical use will ultimately allow enterprises to consistently protect data and broaden its use.


Benefits of automating key pieces of the provisioning process for sensitive data

As data initiatives scale, they require a streamlined provisioning process that can meet the volume and breadth of data usage and stand up to regulations and audit. Manual approaches to provision sensitive, personal data cannot keep up with demand over time. Plus, manual processes are subject to human error, easily circumvented and ultimately fail under enterprise load. Automating key pieces of provisioning sensitive data allows organizations to accelerate request processing time, manage risk with increased efficiency, and broaden how data is used throughout their business. This is accomplished through a reduction of slow manual processes, and an increase in the amount of data that can be made available as a result of better data privacy policy management and application.


Tips for organizations looking to leverage sensitive data, faster:

  • Develop a working group that spans teams and focuses on the use of sensitive data inside the business. This group should focus on creating policies, process, and procedures that enable the organization to 
  • Identify requests for sensitive data that allow for the application of standard policies. These requests should be frequent in nature as it will allow you to both maximize the automation effort as well as proving the value of the project along the way.
  • Evaluate new platforms and processes with a long-term perspective in mind. Access to sensitive data will be an ongoing problem that touches teams across the organization. It is imperative that you procure products and build processes that are capable of servicing a broad range of use cases. 
  • Consider integrating tools and service providers that can help you with this process. Data privacy software companies like Privitar not only provide the software that can be tuned to situations and contexts, but also the privacy expertise to convene stakeholders, build a common understanding, and define policies to meet the range of needs in an enterprise.

Interested in learning more more about how data privacy automation can help your organization? Check out this webinar on June 4, 2020.

Data Privacy Financial Services