Stay out of GDPR scope with data masking/data anonymization

by Ekobit May 08, 2018
Stay out of GDPR scope with BizDataX

Everyone talks about GDPR these days. It is almost impossible not to notice companies that scare you with large fines the world has never seen before.

But let’s break down GDPR to specific issue companies might have once the regulation goes live. Yes, GDPR is a story that relates to organizational processes and how companies do business. But in terms of how private data is treated, one should pay special attention to data anonymization or data masking field.

Imagine a guy named Andy that is working at a local bank. He has been working as a test data engineer for 10 years, a job that makes him happy and that offers plenty of excitement for an IT guy. Recently Andy heard about GDPR and is worried about how this will affect his tasks. He knows that for testing purposes he usually clones the production database and sees clients’ private data. And he realizes that GDPR regulation will forbid this kind of process.

After spending some time researching GDPR online, he learns that the data he uses for testing have to be anonymized. He is worried again because if he has to mask data in excel file or write a script that masks the data for him, this would take ages and who knows if it would work. Andy knows about tools that could do this for him, so he creates a checklist with some requirements like data masking algorithms, performance speed, security issues, test data management, etc.

He does a detailed research and finds out that there are many tools that claim to do the job. Since he knows his company has a limited budget, he looks for tools that might achieve what he needs, but with less investment. Eventually, he runs into BizDataX and examines what this tool does. Core functionalities like data masking and sensitive data discovery are here, it seems user-friendly, performance is at a very high level, database support is good. Now Andy shows this to his colleagues that work as testers and they like the fact BizDataX allows management of test data too.

Finally, Andy presents this to his boss who sees that BizDataX has relevant references, flexibility to adapt to specific requirements and that the tool is also priced significantly lower than data masking solutions from big company names.

In short, Andy gets credited for finding a straight to the point data masking solution that helps with GDPR compliance. His colleagues are glad they can share various functionalities inside different teams and his supervisors are happy to solve this part of GDPR.

Bottom line – protecting personal data in companies that deal with sensitive data doesn’t need to be complicated. Of course, GPDR compliance is a must, but with the right tool such as BizDataX, it is possible to solve this large part of the regulation.

Start leaving your sensitive data out of GDPR scope and contact us today.

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