Passport to privacy with the full OneTrust platform
When looking at the tools available on the market, one thing that made OneTrust stand out was that it was heavily focused on operationalizing a privacy program, rather than solely offering legal assistance and templates. This value has rippled throughout VFS Global’s’ privacy program and has provided Barry with the centralized management point that he needed.
VFS Global approached using the Assessment Automation module by starting from an activity-based aspect, with the record of processing activities driving their whole process. With the record of processing activities at the heart of their process, VFS Global uses Assessment Automation to make judgment calls and better understand what is needed, whether that be a DPIA, vendor assessment, or Privacy by Design checklist.
Barry and his team have been able to customize this module by adding logic decisions and rules to launch other assessments, and this ability to adapt the tool to their needs has been a considerable benefit. “Out of the box OneTrust is very good, but a huge part of its appeal is the ability to customize,” said Barry.
The fact that all the modules are closely interlinked and that attributes can so easily be shared has helped VFS Global better understand and utilize the data that they’re working with. Through the entity inventory element of the Data Mapping module, VFS Global is able to streamline even more of their processes, as they can handle other aspects that are associated with the mapped entities. The way that the Data Mapping modules feeds into the Assessment Automation modules helps add clarity to the overall understanding of their privacy program.
“The interconnecting modules are very good, it’s very easy to share attributes between different tools and use the data that is in seemingly unconnected modules, bringing them together and give more holistic picture of the privacy landscape,” said Barry.
The Data Subject Access Requests module has reduced the time that it takes to respond to requests while also providing a clearer workflow. This increased efficiency means that the internal process is much more transparent and from a consumer perspective the requests are actioned much more quickly.
VFS Global operates a huge number of websites, each with individual functions, so without the Cookie Consent tool VFS Global would find the management almost impossible to manage the cookie banners. The Cookie Consent tool offers the capability to create bundles and interact with the privacy notice management module, and the templates that Barry and his team have created allow the web development team to implement the scripts and banners themselves, knowing that the content is compliant.
Developing test scripts for the UAT and test sites has been very useful for VFS Global, and the ability to create a script for a UAT/Test site enables website teams to fully test functionality before going live.
Competitive privacy as a fast-pass to success
Accountability is an important part of any privacy program. When presenting to a government client the first question VFS Global is asked is, “Have you done a DPIA?” Thanks to OneTrust, they can promptly present a neat report, made particularly accessible by the user-friendly dashboard. This allows VFS Global to demonstrate their proactiveness and action privacy as a competitive differentiator. Privacy used to be a compliance, tick-box-style task, but now it has become a very active and significant part of VFS Global’s strategy.
This transparency also plays a vital role in improving the clarity of the privacy program with the business, the senior leadership team are able to utilize the OneTrust dashboard to gain a better understanding of how the processes look in practice, and have that information available almost instantly rather than having to search through spreadsheets.
