GDPR is here: What is Tableau doing?

You’ve likely read or heard about GDPR—the General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR goes into effect today, 25 May 2018. It strengthens and unifies data protection for all individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA). We wanted to share important resources that describe what Tableau is doing about it in terms of our products, policies, and security practices. You can find the details here.

But what is this, exactly? The GDPR imposes enhanced rules on companies, government agencies, non-profits, and other organizations that offer goods and services to people in the EEA, or that collect and analyze data tied to EEA residents. The GDPR applies to all organizations doing business with individuals in the EEA, whether the organizations are based in the EEA or not. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EEA, so companies need to take a measured approach to their personal data collection and protection practices.

Tableau has always believed in the importance of handling personal data in a way that is both thoughtful and comprehensive, and we will continue to protect customer data in accordance with all current and future legislative guidelines, including GDPR. We believe that GDPR is an important step forward for clarifying and enabling individual privacy rights.

One of our most critical objectives is to create customers for life. In every office, in every region, and across our entire employee base, we know that we must always work to earn your trust and the trust of the world’s data users. This requires us to relentlessly focus on your customer experience—a fundamental component of which is taking great care to safeguard your data.

GDPR is also critical for our customers, and we will continue to work with privacy and data protection experts to ensure that customers who use our products are able to comply with their obligations.

The Tableau platform provides governance measures like data source certifications and features like live query to give customers the robust governance control needed to comply with regulations. And because Tableau’s metadata is open, customers can document and audit who in the organization has accessed what data and when. In addition to working directly with customers to help map the Tableau platform to meet their needs, we have strong partnerships with organizations like Alation and Collibra that can help manage the GDPR process.

To learn more about how the Tableau platform can help you comply with GDPR, please read this whitepaper. If you have any questions please contact us at privacy@tableau.com.