3 Steps how to use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for ensuring GDPR compliance

13 june 2018 | Henk Honders

Sometimes two things happen at once and the combination of them becomes a great opportunity.

The new GDPR legislation (AVG) is now in place and all companies are looking for opportunities to continue to comply with the legislation transparently and clearly, without too many costs! The RPA technology is now 'mature' and easy to use. Software robots can be conveniently used for ‘screen work’, which nowadays is still routinely done by (expensive) employees. With the GDPR legislation in hand, customers / patients / etc. will request their data from suppliers / institutions / etc. "What do you know about me? Which data can be deleted? I would like you to delete all personal data from me and confirm this to me when it is done."

Just imagine that hundreds or thousands of customers will do these requests and your company is not calculated on this. With the uprise of RPA technology, actions such as logging in, data retrieval in systems and databases, data sorting, data presentation, cutting / pasting can all be done by software robots. Customers can request their data via e-mail or web portal. The easier / more reliable / safer this is, the greater the trust of the customers in your organisation.

In addition, RPA can also be used for internal GDPR compliance: All log files, registers, databases can be searched daily for privacy sensitive items, such as for example a BSN number, credit card number, etc. A software robot can make overviews, find out who has access to it. And more Important, this way companies can prevent many (internal) data breaches.

How do you handle this?

Determine the risk and the business impact of the customer scenarios (right to be informed, right to be forgotten) for your organization.
Make the process of requesting self-service as much as possible to reduce costs, while the customer experience is also a distinctive factor here.
Evaluate an RPA tool or service that helps automate the human actions needed to handle the requests.

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