GDPR and MiFID II-Compliant Archiving
Navigating the legalities of data archiving is becoming more complex with regulations such as the GDPR and MiFID II. Data privacy and protection laws have standardized how organizations approach archiving to ensure compliance. So, the big question is how to stay GDPR and MiFID II compliant when archiving. We’ll provide practical guidelines and a checklist to ensure your archiving practices uphold legal standards. GDPR that impact digital archiving and how your archiving solution should address these challenges. Understanding the Landscape Archiving, one of the most fundamental components of data management, stands at odds with the principles of GDPR due to historical inconsistencies in data retention policies and technological limitations. GDPR, with its harsh requirements for data minimization, access controls, and the right to be forgotten, creates a challenge when archiving digitally. Similarly, MiFID II, with its text archiving stipulations, presents specific challenges and opportunities within the financial sector. Why Traditional Archiving is Often Non-Compliant Traditionally, email and data archiving solutions were not designed to manage data in accordance with GDPR and MiFID II requirements. They are built for data hoarding, not data minimization. Their inflexible structures often lack the granular access controls and deletion mechanisms now mandated, making them unable to support the needs of modern privacy and financial regulations. GDPR Retention Period: How Long Is Too Long? One of the most challenging aspects of GDPR compliance is determining the appropriate retention period for different data types. The regulation states that data must be kept only as necessary for the purpose in which it was collected. GDPR doesn’t prescribe specific time limits for data retention. Instead, it mandates that data should only be kept for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Navigating the GDPR Compliance in Archiving Your solution must have several critical features to achieve GDPR compliance in archiving. Robust security measures are necessary to protect personal data from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. This requires implementing modern encryption methods, such as multi-factor authentication, secure data transfer protocols, and access controls. These measures protect data and fulfil the accountability principle under GDPR by demonstrating that your organization takes data protection seriously. Moreover, encryption and pseudonymization help secure data by making it unidentifiable without additional information kept separately. By doing so, businesses can reduce the overall risk associated with data processing. Data Minimization and Retention Automatic retention policies and granular access controls are central when managing GDPR-compliant data. They allow you to set the duration of data retention and restrict access to personal data within the archive to those with a legitimate need based on the principle of least privilege. The above must be maintained in a comprehensive Record of Processing Activities (ROPA). This is a requirement of the GDPR and serves as an essential tool for accountability and assessment. ROPA documents must contain detailed information about all processing activities and be made available to supervisory authorities upon request. To ensure ROPA compliance: Log all processing activities, regardless of scale Regularly update ROPA to reflect changes in data processing practices Ensure ROPA is easily accessible for audits and inspections Your archiving system should be a skilled navigator for the individuals seeking their data. It should enable simple search and retrieval of archives and export data in a format easily handed from one system to another, meeting the navigational requirements in GDPR Articles 15 and 20. Right to Delete Data One significant area of vulnerability for many organisations is email archiving. To comply with GDPR, email archiving solutions should be able to promptly provide users with access to their data and the ability to delete personal data securely. Your archiving system must provide a secure means of deleting data according to your retention period. It should be able to delete data beyond recovery while keeping a record of deletions (as ROPA defines) that acts as your compliance ship through potential audits or claims under the right to be forgotten. Digital Fortification To protect data against the storms of unauthorised access and accidental loss, your archiving solution should offer robust encryption for data in transit and at rest; this includes regular backups that ensure data integrity and protection against loss, intrusion detection and prevention systems to warn of approaching security threats. To fully integrate security into your business, you should consider implementing the following: Involve data protection experts Integrate necessary safeguards into operational processes Regularly test and evaluate systems for privacy vulnerabilities Educate staff on privacy principles GDPR Compliance Auditing As mentioned, your archiving system must be able to maintain detailed records of all data processing activities — an audit trail that effectively serves as the logbook of your compliance journey. Conducting a thorough data audit is the critical initial step towards compliance. An audit involves identifying all personal data within your business, understanding where it resides, how it’s being used, and who has access to it and determining what needs to be archived and what doesn’t. This step serves two crucial purposes. First, it facilitates transparency within your organisation, ensuring everyone knows the data they handle. Second, it allows businesses to assess how they’re currently handling and protecting data against the stringent requirements of GDPR. An effective data audit should cover the following: Data type and category Data flow and access Justifications for processing Data security measures Process for data erasure Even with the most robust systems, a single human error can expose an organisation to compliance breaches. Your team is your frontline defence in maintaining GDPR and MiFID II compliance. Regular training and awareness programs for employees are therefore critical. Training your team should involve understanding the regulatory environment and their responsibilities in handling data. It should also include recognising potential breaches and how to report them. Regular compliance assessments should include periodic reviews of data protection policies and consistent monitoring of your company’s compliance measures to ensure that your team is updated on everything. Mapping