GDPR challenges: Baillie's six data management solutions

Nearly six years since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was first introduced on 25 May 2018, numerous businesses still face significant challenges in achieving compliance. The advent and proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) have compounded these difficulties. In response to these ongoing issues, Andy Baillie, the Vice President of UK and Ireland at data management specialists Semarchy, has put forward six practical recommendations aimed at assisting business and IT leaders in addressing their GDPR compliance challenges through the utilisation of Master Data Management (MDM).

The first recommendation involves consolidating customer data to create a "golden record." Baillie suggests starting by merging fragmented customer records from various systems into a single, mastered view. This centralised data hub, facilitated by MDM, allows for proper governance and eliminates data siloes that can cause significant blind spots in data management.

He also stresses the importance of implementing data quality and deduplication processes. According to Baillie, MDM's data quality and deduplication capabilities are crucial for ensuring that personal data complies with GDPR standards. By validating data against established rules, standardising its formatting, and merging duplicate records, organisations can achieve complete, accurate, and unique customer data, adhering to the GDPR principles of data accuracy and minimisation.

Governance controls and audit trails form the third recommendation. Baillie highlights MDM's essential governance controls, such as granular access permissions, data masking, and audit trails. These functionalities allow organisations to restrict data visibility, safeguard sensitive information, and maintain clear evidence of how personal data is processed and protected throughout its lifecycle. This is vital for demonstrating accountability under GDPR.

A critical part of data management involves managing data retention policies. Baillie elaborates that MDM enables organisations to define and automatically enforce retention policies for personal data based on legal and business requirements. This ensures that only necessary data is kept, and any data no longer required under GDPR is purged timely and efficiently.

Integration with consent management platforms is another significant recommendation. Baillie notes that many modern MDM solutions can integrate seamlessly with dedicated consent management platforms. This integration helps unify consent capture and data governance processes, making managing the consent lifecycle from initial collection to erasure upon request easier.

The final recommendation focuses on preparing a trustworthy, GDPR-compliant data foundation for AI. Baillie advises establishing a solid, well-governed data foundation that supports compliance before leveraging AI. Using MDM, organisations can consolidate scattered personal data into an accurate, deduplicated golden record, ensure data quality through rigorous validation processes, implement essential governance capabilities, and define clear policies for data retention and purging. This robust data foundation allows businesses to harness AI for intelligent insights confidently without risking non-compliance with GDPR.

Baillie emphasises that sustainable GDPR compliance fundamentally hinges on having full control and transparency over the handling of personal data, from source to consumption. However, businesses frequently struggle with gaining enterprise-wide visibility into their data processing activities due to siloed systems and duplicated records. MDM, Baillie points out, provides the data-centric foundation necessary to efficiently locate, update, and protect customer information across enterprise systems and processes.