You Need a Comprehensive Data Capture Plan to Best Meet Regulatory Requirements

Imagine your enterprise is facing millions in fines because of a single oversight like failing to monitor and archive employee communications or collect customer data properly.  From July of 2018 to February 2024, the total sum of GDPR fines was 4.4 billion Euros.  These figures show the extreme consequences organizations face when they don’t have a robust plan for capturing and managing data properly across all platforms. From financial data to mobile chats, the ability to secure, archive, and retrieve critical and relevant data is not just a regulatory necessity but a safeguard against legal and operational risk.  It is essential to have a clear data capture strategy that is centered around determining what data is necessary to retain, archive, or delete in your data lifecycle process.  Investing in comprehensive tools can turn this challenge into a strategic advantage with the added ability to unlock valuable insights.

What Data Sources Need to be Captured

• Personal Identifiable Information (PII):  This includes names, addresses, social security numbers, and other data that directly identifies individuals.  Capturing and protecting PII is crucial for compliance with regulations GDPR and CCPA.
• Sensitive Personal Data:  Encompasses health records, financial details, and other sensitive information.  Managing this health data is essential to meet regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA).  It is important to prevent unauthorized access to this data and ensure its security. 
• Payment Card Information (PCI):  Involves credit card numbers, cardholder names, expiration dates and security codes.  Security PCI is vital for compliance with PCI DSS standards, which protect against fraud and ensure the security of payment card transactions. 
• Communication Records:  Includes emails, chat logs, audio files, and other forms of communication that need to be archived for eDiscovery and audit purposes.  This covers internal and external communication across various platforms to support legal and regulatory investigations.
• Transactional Data:  Records of financial transactions, including details of purchases, sales, and other financial activities.  Capturing this data is crucial for transparency, accurate reporting and compliance with financial regulations. 
• Metadata:  Information about data usage, access logs, and modification histories.  Metadata helps track and audit data handling activities, providing visibility into who accessed or modified data and ensuring accountability and compliance.

Why Data Capture is Critical

• Legal Adherence: Effective data capture and management helps businesses avoid hefty fines and legal repercussions. Regulations like GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, and HIPAA impose strict guidelines on how data should be handled. Non-compliance can result in severe penalties, including financial fines and legal actions.
• Data Integrity and Security: Ensuring that essential and critical data is accurately captured and securely stored prevents unauthorized access, data breaches, and loss of information. This is critical for maintaining the trust of customers and stakeholders and protecting sensitive information from cyber threats.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlined data capture processes reduce redundancy and improve efficiency within the organization. Automated data capture and classification systems free up valuable resources, allowing employees to focus on more strategic tasks.
• Proactive Risk Management: Effective data capture and monitoring enable businesses to identify and mitigate risks early. Advanced AI-enabled monitoring tools, and automated alerts help organizations stay ahead of potential issues, ensuring a proactive approach to data security and compliance.
• Trust and Reputation: Demonstrating robust data management practices builds trust with customers, partners, and regulators. A strong reputation for data security and compliance can differentiate a business from its competitors and foster long-term relationships.
• Transparency and Accountability: Capturing comprehensive data ensures transparency in business operations and supports accountability. Detailed records and metadata provide a clear audit trail, making it easier to investigate and resolve any discrepancies or issues that arise.

6 Key Components of an Effective Capture Strategy

The following elements ensure a solid data capture and management process and can enable you to meet your compliance requirements and unlock key insights from your data.  This is the basis for transforming regulatory challenges into strategic advantages for your organization.

1. Invest in a comprehensive solution built for scalable and secure data capture to ensure centralized management across data frameworks and platforms. 
2. Implement automated data discovery and classification with advanced AI tools that identify and categorize data to streamline the compliance process.
3. Institute dynamic access controls with real-time monitoring and behavioral analysis to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.
4. Automate the archival and deletion process to align with retention policies and streamline data lifecycle management.
5. Employ advanced anomaly monitoring and detection tools to identify and mitigate risks proactively.
6. Conduct regular audits and distribute compliance reports to build transparency with stakeholders. 

How Can Veritas Help?

Veritas Data Compliance provides a comprehensive solution to capture and archive data from over 120 sources with full conversational context.  These include sources like financial messaging platforms, popular collaboration tools, file sharing, SMS, mobile chat, audio and video files, and leading cloud-based applications. 

Our purpose-built suite ensures compliance with industry regulations, supports eDiscovery requirements, and fulfills communication-retention mandates related to corporate governance.  Veritas Data Compliance simplifies the surveillance and supervision review of all communications without sacrificing fidelity.  Our solution classifies content at the source to define patterns and policies. 

We include pre-built connectors to major platforms such as Microsoft 365, Google, Bloomberg, Salesforce, Zoom, and Slack to eliminate the need for custom development and APIs, saving time and costs.  This seamless integration also allows you to adapt quickly to new message platforms and reduce your storage costs. 

Veritas Data Compliance is essential for capturing, managing, and meeting modern data compliance regulations.  To learn more about how Veritas Data Compliance can support your data governance and compliance needs, check out the resources below.