What is a Subject Access Request (SAR)?

The forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will grant individuals the right to obtain access to any personal information and data that is held and processed by an organisation – this access is enabled via a Subject Access Request (SAR).

What does this mean for companies?

 
The compulsory response time for Subject Access Requests under the GDPR will be reduced, with organisations required to respond to a SAR within one month of receipt. With the removal of the £10 SAR fee it seems likely that the volume of SARs will increase so it is imperative that organisations understand exactly what personal data they hold for individuals, as well as how and where it is stored, so that they can respond to SARs in an effective and efficient manner.

How Nalytics can Help

The Nalytics search, discovery and analysis platform provides a range of capabilities which allow organisations to conform to GDPR requirements in a way that will reduce the inevitable strain that SARs can put on resources.

• Facilitate the collection of disparate data into one or more data sets
  Enables users to search for information simultaneously across the entire IT estate ensuring no personal information is missed. This can include archived data as well as live.

• Capture of associated metadata
  Nalytics can capture the metadata associated with documents/data, which can then be used to filter search results, enabling fast targeting of relevant data sources.

• Automatic identification and extraction of personal data
  By automatically locating personal identifying data such as email addresses, passport numbers, and national insurance numbers, documents containing personal data can be quickly identified.

• Export to Word
  SAR responses can be compiled within Nalytics and information printed or saved in Word for easy electronic dissemination.

• Nalytics offers redaction of potentially sensitive information
  Sensitive information, such as third party data can be redacted to ensure only those who are allowed to see it are able to.