You have probably heard of the LGPD and the GDPR, which regulate data protection.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is the law that protects and regulates the data of all Europeans. Enacted in May 2018, it applies across all 28 member states of the European Union and aims to protect a wide range of data, such as biometrics, health information and criminal records.
The LGPD (Brazil’s General Data Protection Law), inspired by the GDPR, also seeks to protect and regulate the use of personal data, but there are significant differences between the European regulation and the Brazilian version.
For example, the GDPR was designed to meet the needs of 28 countries and is therefore not the product of a single nation. The LGPD, in turn, was drafted to address national needs that emerged after Brazil’s Internet Civil Framework (Marco Civil da Internet).
Both regulations impose penalties on those who store and process data in the event of leaks or misuse. Even in Brazil, although the law is recent, there are already reports of companies being fined.
Given the size of the fines, many companies are looking for ways to protect their databases, and data governance and access profile management are among the key tools.
What is data governance?
By definition, data governance encompasses all policies and procedures related to data, including processing, analysis and disposal.
All of this policy and concern around data use is recent, driven by a growing wave of companies consuming sensitive information at scale for use by marketing, finance and even legal teams.
Yet even before we used data at today’s scale, this kind of information control was already necessary, and in most cases it was done manually in spreadsheets scattered across departments, with no standardization or care.
With technological progress and the exponential growth of databases and of data use in day-to-day business, there was a pressing need to automate and digitize this data, making it more centralized and less prone to errors or leaks. Beyond digitization, it became clear that companies also needed to establish processes and structure.
These processes, as mentioned earlier, are what we know as data governance.
More automated data governance has given a large number of companies stronger protection and greater clarity, increasing the reliability of their data as well as its integrity and security.
Of course, implementing data governance is also a learning process for the organization itself, since all of these processes need to be monitored and revisited by data management teams, so that security and internal safeguards (which prevent data leaks) are constantly reviewed and enforced.
Why data governance matters beyond regulatory compliance
Data governance delivers a wide range of benefits to companies, going far beyond compliance with the LGPD and/or GDPR.
With well-organized data, companies gain benefits such as greater security and reliability when selecting information: once these processes are in place, users rely on a single source of truth rather than multiple sources that can create doubt.
In addition, companies subject to compliance requirements or audits go through these processes more smoothly and transparently, since these teams, applying governance policies supported by technology solutions, keep data centralized in a single point of access. In other words, even information management itself becomes easier.
Finally, cost reduction is the key measure of good data governance: centralization gives users more confidence and precision in decision-making, without wasting budget on dozens of tests.
Use at large enterprises and in the legal sector
Data use by both the legal sector and large enterprises has been growing exponentially, and the trend is set to intensify in the coming years, since this data supports a wide variety of strategies, from finding new customers, in the case of large enterprises, to gathering information critical to the progress of legal cases.
In these cases, the data involved is highly sensitive and requires protection — Brazilian taxpayer and ID numbers (CPF, RG), passport numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses and, in some cases, medical data — which makes data governance essential.
That is why law firms and large enterprises must take the necessary precautions to prevent data leaks, which can cause harm to their clients and employees.
The best way to ensure strong data governance in this scenario is to use platforms built for it, such as Starburst and Databricks. Both platforms provide democratized access to data without any loss of security.
Data democratization makes it possible to control data hierarchy, enabling the creation of access profiles and levels. For example, with Starburst you can connect all kinds of data sources, from Google Drive to SAP, Salesforce and Oracle, as well as tools such as Power BI and Python.
How can Digiage help?
Digiage is a recognized leader in building data and API solutions, having established successful partnerships in recent years with a wide range of companies that enable fast, efficient data governance.
Its partner portfolio includes Starburst, Databricks, Alation and many others. Digiage is also one of the few Starburst partners in Brazil and one of the partners with the most Databricks certifications.
These partnerships have driven success across many Digiage projects in recent years, with client success stories in gas distribution, telecommunications, and the automotive and consumer goods industries.
If you want to explore the services offered by our data practice, get in touch with Digiage to learn more!