Collecting less.
WHY IT IS THE MOST UNDERUSED PROTECTION
What you do not hold cannot be breached, misused, requested or mishandled.
WHAT TO REVIEW
Every form you collect through.
WHAT TO ASK OF EACH FIELD
What is this used for?
WHAT TO DO WITH FIELDS THAT HAVE NO ANSWER
Remove them.
WHAT COMMONLY HAS NO ANSWER
Date of birth, where age is not relevant Gender, where nothing depends on it Full address, where a city would do Title
WHAT TO CONSIDER INSTEAD OF RAW DATA
Storing whether someone is over an age, rather than their birth date Storing a region rather than a precise location Storing a hash where you only need to compare
WHAT TO REVIEW IN SYSTEMS
Fields collected years ago and never used.
HOW TO TELL
Whether anything reads them.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT LOGS
Log what is needed for operation, not everything.
WHY
Logs accumulate personal data invisibly.
WHAT TO AVOID LOGGING
Full request contents Credentials Personal data beyond identifiers
WHAT TO SET
Retention on logs, deliberately.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT FREE-TEXT FIELDS
Recognise they contain anything, and treat them accordingly.
WHAT TO MEASURE
How much personal data you hold, and whether it is growing.
