Webinar | Knowing your data through classification

Data classification helps you organise and understand your data, and then commercialise it (law)fully. It enables you to track your data and handle it according to the way your organisation has instructed you to. Before you can do anything with data, you need to classify it. Data classification plays a crucial role in ensuring regulatory compliance concerning data, including personal data.

If the law says you can only do x with y type of data, you better know if you have y type of data.

If you don’t classify your data, how will you know when you have to delete or archive it? How will you know where your most sensitive data sets live? How do you retain transactional data for the retention period the law prescribes if you don’t know what transaction data you have? How do you mask account numbers if you don’t know what the law defines an account number to be? This is why data classification is so important. Let’s look at some examples.

When you classify your data, the opportunities for what you can do with it grow. You can commercialise the data and comply with the law.

There are several factors to consider when determining how to classify your data. The following will influence the classifications you choose.

• Legal requirements – many laws, rules, codes or standards require you to classify data.
• Values – the values of your organisation.
• Criticality – how critical is the data to your business?
• Sensitivity to unauthorised disclosure or modification – how sensitive is the data?

Data classification is a component of data mapping, which in turn is part of activity mapping. How do they differ? You need to know your data to know the relevant facts when protecting personal data. Data classification is often done as part of a data discovery exercise. Information or data law has a direct impact.

Join us for this webinar, where we’ll explore this topic for an hour.

Outcomes

• Know why your organisation must classify data by considering the benefits you can gain.
• Put the right governance in place by knowing the purpose of a data classification policy (an aspect of a data governance policy) and a data classification matrix.
• Identify the best software tools (or legal tech) to use by looking at some options.

Audience

This event is for anyone involved in data management or governance.  It is for people from IT, legal and compliance. The Information Officer will also find it useful.

Panel

Michalsons: John Giles who has extensive experience with data law. He isn’t a data scientist (although he wishes he was). If you could go back to varsity he’d study Data Science at Stellenbosch. He has presented many times on commercialising data (law)fully to many audiences, including at Salesforce events. He also leads the Q&A on commercialising data (law)fully. David Luyt, who has recently drafted a Data Classification Policy for several clients.

John is one of the few data lawyers in the world.

Attendees

This event is free for members of any of the Michalsons programmes. They can simply register for the event. Not yet a member? Join a programme now.

Non-member:

Investment: R742

Secure your spot now for our workshop by booking today.