How Data Minimisation Efforts in Salesforce Can Regulate Storage Safety for Data Archives & Backup

“Less is More”. Irrespective of whether you collect, process, and retain data via Salesforce or integrated systems. That’s what data minimisation is all about.

It’s easier said than done. It has always been a typical tendency of admin-level controllers to hoard data in the platform storage as they struggle to decide on deletions.

You will often find them stuck in the thought loop — “Perhaps we’ll need it later, so let’s just have it in store”.

In 5–10 years down, challenges like app bloats, data skews, placid list view, reports & dashboards start screaming for help and demanding frequent attention.

Most settle for temporary solutions like increasing your Salesforce storage capacity which is more data storage or some steep migrations for quick relief, exposing sensitive data to external environments.

This has always proved to be costly. Failed data minimisation efforts have compelled industries to drop the ball on compliance court and pay heavy fines. If it’s not too late, it is good to know that 23.67% of privileged IT users act as insider threats, whoever has access to the internal company data. Here is why Salesforce always stresses, “Why Protecting Data is Partnership”.

Implementing data minimisation practices enhances customer-controlled data security in Salesforce, particularly in addressing trust challenges. Multiple regulatory bodies, including GDPR, CCPA, and even emerging data laws like the DPDP Act India urge organizations to minimize & mitigate risks of exposure to sensitive customer data at any point in time.

Let’s dive deeper to understand the data minimisation principle, its benefits, compliance demands, and how you as a data controller in Salesforce ensure that your Salesforce backup & archive processes are streamlined.

Data Minimisation Principle by Definition

Understanding the duality in the meaning

By definition, the data minimisation principle is effective when a data controller (in this case, a Salesforce admin or system architects as platform managers) decides on which customer data is to be processed or for what purpose, should collect, process & retain only adequate, relevant & limited amounts of data.

At its core, the Data minimisation Principle encapsulates a dual perspective, addressing both risk mitigation and operational efficiency. Firstly, it serves as a safeguarding mechanism, urging organizations to refrain from collecting data that carries elevated risks, such as sensitive or personally identifiable information, which could expose the organization to legal, financial, or reputational liabilities.

Secondly, it promotes streamlined data practices by discouraging the accumulation of unnecessary data, thereby reducing storage burdens, simplifying Salesforce data management processes, and enhancing data governance frameworks.

Data Minimisation Benefits
Why You Need to Believe in It to Reinforce for Salesforce

According to the Salesforce Shared Responsibility model for data protection, the platform user should be able to adopt the latest security controls and features available, continuously monitor user behavior and event logs, and be able to protect sensitive customer data in alignment with compliance standards. Allowing organizations unrestricted freedom to store and process customer data poses threats to data privacy and security. Embracing data minimisation offers several key benefits:

Reduces Salesforce Data Storage Costs: By managing unnecessary data, organizations can alleviate the burden of exponential data growth in Salesforce and free up the system data storage space for critical information, thereby reducing storage costs.

Ensure Client-side Data Security: Minimizing personally identifiable information across Salesforce by applying permission sets strengthens security measures, making it easier to protect against unnecessary exposure and Salesforce data loss.

Operational Efficiency: Salesforce data storage streamlines business operations, making it easier for users to access and process critical information, maintain data integrity, and manage availability.

Compliance Adherence: Data minimisation practices align with regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA, ensuring organizations collect and retain only necessary data in to comply with standards and regulations.

GDPR, CCPA & Other Privacy Laws
Also Demands For Data minimisation

General Data Protection Regulation is one of the toughest data privacy laws in the world and demands “data minimisation for privacy & protection”. On high-level GDPR penalties

has fines of up to £17.5 million under the UK GDPR, €20 million under the EU GDPR, or 4% of annual global turnover can be issued for infringements of the article on Data minimisation as one of seven principles relating to the processing of personal data: Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency.

Privacy regulations worldwide, including CCPA and data protection laws, mandate data minimisation requirements, necessitating a reassessment of Salesforce data privacy. Whether you are retaining your customer information from Salesforce for archiving or storing backup copies, consider these three principles to focus on:

Breach exposure minimisation — zeroing down the platform exposure of the personal information (PI) when you process, store, or transmit data from Salesforce with proper encryption & access control.

Purpose limitations — If you have a long-term data retention plan, make sure that your Salesforce data is retained with a purpose, let’s say for compliance reporting, audits, or others.

Consumer consent — limiting the collection of personal data from Salesforce that exempts your business or organization from collecting, processing, sharing, and sale.

Know Your Data Controller Duties
Identifying the Rights & Roles

There has always been a gaping gap between compliance knowledge & actions in data privacy measures. Therefore, they end up taking wrong actions leading to heavy compliance fines. In the booming data culture here are the compliance terms you need to be aligned with while handling data in Salesforce.

Data Subject: The individual whose personal data is being processed within Salesforce.

Data Controller: The organization that determines the purposes and means of processing personal data within Salesforce.

Data Processor: Salesforce, which processes personal data on behalf of the data controller within the Salesforce platform.

Now, it’s even easier to decide the roles & responsibilities right? Now if you are using third-party applications for Salesforce data management, how can you take action as a data controller? This mandates your current archive & backup applications in Salesforce to have compliance features to surface your data minimisation efforts. That’s exactly what DataArchiva comes into the picture.

Succeeding with Data Minimisation Efforts
With DataArchiva backup & archive in Salesforce

DataArchiva backup and archive applications for Salesforce help businesses minimize their data footprint by efficiently managing their Salesforce data storage. Let’s explore what’s already there as features to help you succeed with data minimisation & what can be done if you are a data controller to schedule archives & backups in Salesforce with DataArchiva without compromising on lawfulness, fairness & transparency.

1. Follows Least Privilege Principle: Configure user permissions and access controls in your Salesforce instance to ensure that whoever is using DataArchiva for backup & archives only has access to the data they need to perform their job functions. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.
2. No External Exposure: DataArchiva’s backup and archive applications are configured in a way that prevents external exposure of sensitive data and ensures ‘zero’ platform exposure even when you are connecting third-party clouds to perform the data processing jobs. This includes implementing appropriate network security measures and access controls.
3. Advanced Encryption & Access Control: With DataArchiva you can have access to advanced encryption techniques to protect data both at rest and in transit. Implement access controls to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data, even within backups and archives of your Salesforce data.
4. Reducing Dependencies on 3rd Party Salesforce Connectors: DataArchiva has in-built connectors for cloud integrations, minimizing the use of third-party connectors & integrations that may increase the risk of data exposure or compromise data security. Whenever possible, rely on native Salesforce functionality or trusted, well-secured integrations.
5. Defined Policy-Driven Data Retention: DataArchiva’s Salesforce data archiving application allows you to implement policy-driven data retention practices to ensure that only necessary data is retained in your archives. Define clear retention policies based on legal requirements, business needs, and best practices.
6. Custom Backup & Recovery Options: DataArchiva backup and recovery application for Salesforce offers multiple recovery options to suit different scenarios. This includes full data recovery, granular record-level recovery, and other recovery options.
7. Easy Find & View for Active Audits on Backup & Archive Processes: DataArchiva’s advanced search on Archive & Backups makes it easy to find and view active audits on backup and archive processes. This ensures transparency and accountability in your data management practices, helping you identify, and exercise the right to erasure, correct, and report on Salesforce data that is archived or backed up in Salesforce.

Make your compliance journey Seamless with DataArchiva. For more details enquire now or request a demo of your archives & backups.