Ready or not, the GDPR is on its way

The key factors you must consider in order to make analytics compliant

If you've read our Analytics for Government paper you'll know about the great things that are already being achieved in some of the largest departments across UK government. However, when the GDPR comes into effect, data management will impact your analytics programmes, so it's vital that you start assessing GDPR risk now.

What are the key data issues you must be able to resolve?

1. Data discovery – locating all the data you hold about citizens, employees and contractors, including digital footprints created by citizen interaction channels
2. Quickly perform Subject Access Requests – providing all information inside or outside the department to people who request to see it
3. Enact data usage consent – know what you can do with each individual's data, potentially including derived data
4. Understand and enable the Right to be Forgotten
5. Know how and when you should report compliance

When it comes to working with data on a daily basis we recommend you invest in an analytics capability with the tools to help you find, protect, audit and report on personal and sensitive information. An end-to-end approach is best, especially if your data is siloed. A solution with the following out-of-the-box capabilities will support your digital ambitions and support analytics-driven decision-making:

• Access – use a single management interface to access all data across silos and integrate structured and unstructured big data
• Identify – locate data sources containing personal data, de-identify some data as sensitive, assess the risk of exposing personal information
• Govern – create a universal classification of data terms so everyone is working to the same understanding. Create an in-depth understanding of data flows and embed data quality measures
• Protect – deploy role-specific data access and authenticate users, apply data anonymization techniques, then monitor and report on usage
• Audit – quickly run reports on data usage to prove that you are in compliance.

Data management is a critical aspect of the analytics process, so we advise that you work with a partner who embeds it into their service. Why not talk to us about how we can help support you with GDPR compliance >>