Addressing data privacy requests

To handle data privacy requests in the AR System database

When an individual logs a data privacy request, the Data Protection Officer or Remedy Administrator needs to act on the request by searching, extracting, or anonymizing the personal data connected to that individual. The following procedure explains how to use the AR System Personal Data Privacy (PDP) utility for performing any of these operations.

1. Back up the database.
2. In BMC Helix ITSM, select Applications > Personal Data Privacy, click the PDP Job Console form, and create a job.
3. Enter the details of the requester, and then on the Personal Data tab, click Add.
   Personal Data refers to the string that is searched in the database. 

4. Enter values in the Personal Data Label and Personal Data fields.

   For example, to search for mmann@calbroservices.com, where mmann@calbroservices.com is the email address, enter Email Address in the Personal Data Label field and mmann@calbroservices.com in the Personal Data field.

   The Replace with field is auto-populated with a string. When the AR Forget operation is executed, the Replace with string replaces the string entered in the Personal Data field.

5. Click Add.
   You can add multiple Personal Data strings in a job for a requester.

6. Click Lock Personal Data to lock the data connected to the requester.

   You can use the Exclusion List or Inclusion List forms. For more details, see Considerations below.

7. From the Operations tab, select an operation and click Execute.
   The following screenshot shows different types of the Execute operations:
   
   The following table describes different types of Execute operations:

   Operation	Description
   AR Search	Search Personal information data in the database and provide result in the Search Result tab.
   AR Extract	Extract the result of AR Search operation in the CSV format.
   AR Forget AR Delete	Anonymize the personal data information that is extracted from the search result.

   When the anonymize operation is completed, a message is displayed describing the number of records that were anonymized or failed to anonymize. You can make required changes in the search results and run the operation again for the failed records.

   

   There might be personal data that is not connected to the user that has requested data privacy request. In this case, examine and modify the search result report to include the personal data that is connected to the user.

   Run the utility for one individual at a time and provide all the possible personal data within the same job to anonymize. This approach produces the optimal number of records to review for the search result of the requester.

   Be sure to anonymize or delete all the personal data for an individual in a single operation. Partial anonymization or deletion of personal data for an individual might cause data inconsistencies in the database and might result in errors within the database.

Statuses in Personal Data Privacy utility

The following list explains statuses that are displayed across the different phases of the Personal Data Privacy utility.

To handle data privacy requests in the Smart IT database

When the Personal Data Privacy (PDP) utility (located in the installationDirectory\BMC Software\Smart_IT\SmartITCustomizationUtil\password-encryption-version-BUILD-SNAPSHOT.zip) runs on the User or People form to anonymize the Login Name field for a requester, the Smart IT database needs to be updated with the anonymized string.

1. Double-click to open the PDP utility:
   (Windows): PDPU_SmartIT_DB_Tool-9.1.05-SNAPSHOT\scripts\win\smartit_pdpu_tool.bat
   (Linux): PDPU_SmartIT_DB_Tool-9.1.05-SNAPSHOT\scripts\linux\smartit_pdpu_tool.sh
2. Enter the following command to encrypt the password for the Smart IT database:
   Command in Shell mode: pdpu-encrypt-password <your password>

3. Open PDPU_SmartIT_DB_Tool-9.1.05-SNAPSHOT\scripts\win\..\..\config\application.yml in a text editor and update the following database connection details:

   Field	Value
   driver - class - name	Enter the name of the database.
   url	Enter the URL to access the database.
   username	Enter the user name who has the permissions to update the database.
   password	Paste the encrypted password that is copied from step 2 in this syntax: ENC(xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
   tenantid	Enter the tenant ID between the double quotations.

Handling data privacy requests in Smart Reporting

The user sync utility creates jobs to synchronize Smart Reporting database with the updates that are made on the AR System User and People forms. When an operation is performed on these forms, a corresponding job is signaled to be executed at a scheduled time for a customer. The job schedule is controlled by the escalation that executes in every 12 hours, and checks for synchronization requests. This user sync utility helps updating Smart Reporting database for data privacy requests. 

 Considerations

Consider the following points while executing a request for a data privacy operation:

• You should configure the list of forms in the following forms:
  • Exclusion List—Specifies the names of forms in which the personal data must not be searched. For example, to prevent searching personal data from the Audit form, you must add the Audit form in the Exclusion List.
  • Inclusion List—Specifies the names of forms in which the personal data must be searched.
• If a form is added to both forms, the Exclusion List takes precedence over the Inclusion List.
• When the Exclusion List or Inclusion List are not configured, personal data is searched in all the forms.
• Before executing AR Extract or AR Forget operations, you must execute an AR Search operation. If you select any operation other than Search, an error is displayed.
• Personal data is not searched inside an attachment.
• Personal data in the Last modified by field is not anonymized.
• The anonymization operation cannot anonymize a specific field value if the size of a field is less than the Replace String field value.
• A data privacy operation is not reversible. Before executing the AR Forget operation, make sure that the entered information string is correct.
• When multiple Personal Data records are added to a job, sometimes multiple errors are displayed in the job logs of the AR System Personal Data Privacy utility.

Frequently asked questions about the PDP utility