Employees Seeking Data Containing Their Personal Information

Data subject access requests (DSARs), the right for any consumer to request that companies tell them what data holding their personal information they have stored, were one of the most controversial aspects of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation when it was launched in 2018. DSARs have been problematic for many global companies that are trying to figure out the requirements, and acquire technology to fulfill them.  A complicating factor has been the increasing number of requests coming from an unexpected source — current and former employees. “Most of the data subject access requests work I have advised on has been from consumers, but we are seeing an increase in the number of employees requesting DSARs,” says Robert Bond, senior counsel with Bristows law firm. California’s data privacy act has employee DSAR provisions, but they don’t come into effect until 2023. In a whitepaper, Exterro looks at how U.S. companies that are covered by the California act can learn from the experience of the General Data Protection Regulation to build an efficient DSAR process before it faces data requests.