After years of ongoing concerns over security, recently the China-owned social media app TikTok has begun to migrate its U.S. users’ data to U.S.-owned servers in a move to keep personal data protected from international security breach. This is just one example of how data security for consumers is increasingly a concern for any person who uses digital apps. And it seems like everywhere we look there are more instances of data security breaches. In our increasingly digitized world, is this simply the new norm? As a consumer, is there actually a way to reap the benefits of digital platforms while keeping your personal data secure – especially the most sensitive and confidential data like your financial information?

The good news is that data storage and security regulations are increasing, known as security compliance. Security compliance involves strategies, guidelines, and tested best-practices that companies can follow that ensure data is kept private and secure.

SECURITY COMPLIANCE

There are several different guiding regulations for security compliance, depending on what you do. Perhaps the most well-known compliance is HIPAA, which seeks to protect the sensitive material located in an individual’s medical health records. When it comes to personal data collection by technology companies, however, many of them, including Pentadata, are guided by SOC2 (Systems and Organizational Controls) compliance. Within SOC2 are two types: Type I is relevant for how vendors design their security system controls; Type II refers to the effectiveness of those controls over a period of time. Other compliance regulations include PCI (Payment Card Industry), which regulates the credit card industry, and ISO/IEC 27001 (International Organization of Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission), which helps companies keep assets secure and is used across 160+ countries.

SECURITY AND PORTABILITY GO HAND-IN-HAND

In our first two posts of this series, we introduced the concept of data portability and argued why it increasingly affects every person. Now we reach a point where we can’t move on without talking about how portability and security should be directly connected to each other.  People want the power of portability – being able to share data from one entity to another one of a person’s choosing – in order to reap the benefits. But every time data moves from one place to another, it becomes more vulnerable to being accessed by other people who don’t actually have permission to access it. Thus security throughout the portability process is essential. The compliance standards mentioned above, particularly SOC2, address not just the secure storage of data, but also the secure porting of data.

When done the right way, portability has immense potential to benefit all parties involved. Through portability, consumers can share insightful financial data about themselves with another entity that can, for example, help them better manage their money, pay off debt, or build wealth. Looking at it from the other direction, through portability, those third-party entities can access the personal data they need to provide money management, debt payment, or wealth building services for their users. Portability guarantees that platforms can receive the data they want from the users who want to share it. No matter which direction you’re looking, though, portability must be coupled with security.

PORTABILITY THE PENTADATA WAY

The first and maybe most important thing you need to know is that Pentadata strictly follows SOC2-Type 2 Compliance. These standards ensure that personal data remains secure as it’s being ported from one place to another.

Does that mean it’s a tedious and involved process? Not at all! In fact, Pentadata’s APIs are the most up-to-date that are available. They’re simple to use and can easily be integrated into an app or platform within two days. Using our Transactionz product, developers can access their users’ card transactions and banking information instantly, all in one place. And on the topic of security, your users always have complete control over whether or not they opt-in. They also can access the same bank and card transactions you have access to right within your app.

Does it sound too good to be true? Why don’t you try it out for yourself and see how easy it could be for you! Through our sandbox, you can test out how our APIs work in a simulated environment. Then when you’re ready, we’ll connect you with the real data you need to power your app.

Ready to try it out? Click here to access the sandbox and get started.

This post is Part 3 of a 5-part series on Data Portability. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for the last two installations.