We are all conscious of our digital selves and how much of who and what we are is visible on the internet, there’s a seedy underbelly that’s perhaps less known to many of us, particularly if we are not part of the hacker community. We’re also well aware that the likes of Cambridge Analytica and the Facebook fiasco, led to bad actors targeting ordinary consumers (and voters) with false narratives and targeted messages to manipulate the thinking and perspectives of the general public.

More recently you will have noticed that almost every site that you visit, now asks that you give your explicit consent to having them track your interaction and browsing on the site and potentially other sites too. Signing up for electronic newsletters has become as onerous or as legally webbed, as applying for a credit card, and just as for the credit card T’s and C’s, the degree to which we all read the fine print is likely very small.

For years we have assumed that businesses would store our details responsibly and not expose our information and especially our unique identifiers, email address, and vitals to those who might engage in nefarious deeds.

Despite the fact that there have been many data breaches, it is surprising then, that many companies still do not appropriately secure their customer data. This securing of data should be thought of in the context of being a defence strategy. This is not unlike a gate and perimeter fence to property or controlled borders of a country.

Adequate data security, quality, and access control combined with meeting the rigours of compliance are data management defence measures and they’re a critical part of ensuring that customer data is held appropriately and securely.

“The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.”

― John Locke, English philosopher and political theorist

Every time identity-related data or personally identifiable information (PII) is stolen or leaked and then abused, it is the companies that carry the cost burden. As a consequence, it is very important to take on defensive data management measures to neutralize risk and threats.

Poor data quality and poor data security ultimately carry a cost that is often greater than simply monetary values. Miscommunication or inappropriate communication from poor data quality and the more serious loss of data as part of a data breach, all damage the reputation of a brand or organizational identity which in turn can lead to the immediate loss of trust between your company and its customers.

Some of the more rigorous compliance expectations that your business should be adhering to, under the various regulations, include lawful possession of data, fairness in the use of that data, and transparency about the data that you have. Some other requirements are that you only use the data for its originally agreed purpose, that you only hold the absolute minimum of data that you need, that you retain it only for so long as you previously agreed or until the data no longer serves its original purpose, that the data be correct and proper and not exposed publicly and that if any of these facets are not adhered to, that the persons to whom that data relates, will be appropriately informed.

The fines and penalties associated with violations and failures can be extremely punitive and actually put organizations out of business.

The Pretectum Customer Master Data Management platform addresses aspects of this defensive strategy by offering five key characteristics to the customer master data management practice that support your CMDM function in being compliant.

Encryption – all data stored in the Pretectum CMDM platform and as such, data at rest, is encrypted by default in a secure database

Access Control – all access to objects within the Pretectum CMDM platform is granted through a “least permissions” model and is granted to users via an identifier with an accompanying password for UI access, and the same with a token via API. Users are then further restricted based on a hierarchy of permissions based on the organizational assignment and very fine-grained permissions within that organizational assignment.

Identifiable users – all users are identified by way of an email address that is part of the domain associated with the Pretectum platform subscription.

Data Quality built-in – depending on the way schemas are defined, all data either confirms or conflicts with self-defined business rules and configuration. The ability to observe the compliance of a given record with the specific rules defined is observable at every stage in the platform.

Verbose Auditing and change logging – a verbose history of changes and events is tracked for all data and all objects in the platform including changes to user permissions and access.

The original posting of this article can be found at Pretectum