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🔒 Compliance Automation

The Challenge: Manual Compliance Hunting

Before Custom Metadata:

  • Data breach suspected
  • Need to know: Does this integration handle GDPR data?
  • Search documentation: "Maybe?"
  • Call developers: "Probably?"
  • Regulators require notification within 72 hours
  • Clock ticking, unclear data scope, compliance officer panicking

Result: Regulatory violations, fines, customer notification delays, reputational damage.

The Solution: Compliance Tags in Custom Metadata

Attach compliance metadata to integrations:

  • GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, CCPA, SOX compliance tags
  • Data Classification: Personal Data, Payment Card Data, PHI, Public
  • Data Retention: 7 years, 90 days, compliance policy
  • Legal Contact for each compliance tag

Result: Data breach discovered → Filter integrations by GDPR tag → Know instantly which systems affected → Notify regulators in minutes, not days.

Real-World Impact

Scenario Before After Value
GDPR Breach Discovery 2 days (hunting + meetings) 30 seconds (filter + export) Meets 72-hour notification window
Audit Preparation 40 hours (Excel hunting) 5 minutes (filter + export) Audit-ready in one query
Risk Assessment "Unknown" (guessing) Data-driven (facts in metadata) Compliance officer confident
Regulatory Response Delayed, incomplete, reactive Immediate, complete, proactive Avoid six-figure fines

Implementation: Compliance Tags

Define once:

  • GDPR (EU resident personal data)
  • HIPAA (Patient health information)
  • PCI DSS (Payment card data)
  • CCPA (California personal data)
  • SOX (Financial reporting data)

Apply to integrations:

  • Integration "Payment-Processing": Compliance Tags = [GDPR, PCI DSS]
  • Integration "Employee-Directory": Compliance Tags = [GDPR]
  • Integration "Healthcare-Claims": Compliance Tags = [HIPAA]
  • Integration "Financial-Close": Compliance Tags = [SOX]

Query during incident:

GDPR Breach Suspected
→ Filter integrations: Compliance Tags = GDPR
→ Result: 23 integrations processing EU personal data
→ Legal contact for each: Sarah (GDPR Officer)
→ Notify: 23 affected systems identified in 30 seconds
→ Determine: Which systems affected by breach scope
→ Escalate: Notify legal/regulators within 72 hours

Without metadata:

GDPR Breach Suspected
→ Email all teams: "Did you handle GDPR data?"
→ Wait for responses (24 hours)
→ Get conflicting answers (different teams, different memory)
→ Schedule meeting (2 days)
→ Compile list of affected systems (4 days)
→ 72-hour notification window already PASSED
→ Regulatory fine incoming

Advanced: Risk Scoring by Compliance Tag

Visualize compliance risk across portfolio:

Integration Compliance Owner SLA Risk
Payment-Processing GDPR, PCI DSS Henrik Gold Critical
Employee-Directory GDPR Sarah Silver High
Financial-Close SOX Ahmed Gold High
Marketing-Email GDPR John Bronze Medium
Public-Website None Mike Bronze Low

Result: Prioritize governance efforts. Critical compliance integrations get Gold SLA + top owner.

Next Step

Add or manage Custom Metadata – Define compliance tags

Ownership Clarity scenario – See end-to-end incident response