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GDPR Compliance

CRAFT is designed to support organizations in meeting their obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This page covers data handling, Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) implementation, audit logging, and data residency controls.
CRAFT provides the technical mechanisms for GDPR compliance. Organizations are responsible for configuring and operating the platform in accordance with their specific GDPR obligations, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), and legal counsel.

Data Processing Principles

The platform implements GDPR’s data processing principles at the architecture level:

Personal Data Inventory

The platform processes the following categories of personal data:
The “Suggested Lawful Basis” column provides guidance only. Organizations must confirm the lawful basis for each processing activity in their specific deployment context and document it in their Records of Processing Activities (RoPA).

Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF)

The platform implements RTBF using crypto-shredding — destroying the encryption key rather than locating and deleting every instance of the data.

How Crypto-Shredding Works

1

PII fields are encrypted per principal

When audit log entries are created, PII fields (actor identity, ip_address) are encrypted using a per-principal encryption key.
2

RTBF request is received

An administrator or the data subject initiates an RTBF request via the Governance API.
3

Encryption key is destroyed

The principal’s encryption key is permanently deleted. Without the key, encrypted fields become unrecoverable.
4

Audit trail is preserved

The audit log entry structure is preserved (action, resource_type, resource_id, timestamp, trace_id), but the actor field displays [REDACTED].

Data Deletion Matrix

When an RTBF request is processed, data is deleted across all storage systems:
WAL and PITR backups may contain personal data. GDPR controllers have one month to respond to RTBF requests (extendable by two months for complex cases under Art. 12(3)). Recommended maximum backup retention is 30-90 days to stay within RTBF response obligations. The default infrastructure configuration retains 7 daily backups with 7-day transaction log retention. Long-term backups containing personal data require either crypto-shredding capability or documented justification under Art. 17(3) exemptions.

Audit Logging

Every state-changing operation produces an immutable audit entry:

Audit Log Properties

  • Append-only: No updates or deletes in normal operation
  • Retention: Configurable per tenant (default 1 year; extended retention only where required by specific regulation, e.g., financial record-keeping)
  • Export: GET /governance/admin/audit-logs?format=csv for compliance reporting
  • SIEM integration: Forward to Splunk, Datadog, or SIEM via OpenTelemetry Collector (customer-configurable exporters)
  • Filterable: By actor, action, date range, and resource

Breach Notification

GDPR Article 33 requires that in the event of a personal data breach, the controller must notify the competent supervisory authority without undue delay and, where feasible, no later than 72 hours after becoming aware of it. Article 34 requires notification to affected data subjects where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms. The platform supports breach detection and timely reporting through:
  • SIEM integration: Real-time forwarding of security events via OpenTelemetry Collector for anomaly detection
  • Audit log analysis: Identify unauthorized access patterns via audit log queries and export
  • OpenTelemetry alerting: Configure alerts for unusual access patterns (high volume queries, off-hours access, privilege escalation)
  • Trace correlation: trace_id in audit logs enables end-to-end investigation of suspected breaches
Organizations must establish their own breach notification procedures, including designated contacts for supervisory authority notification, internal escalation chains, and data subject communication templates. The platform provides detection and evidence tools, not the notification process itself.

Data Residency

For GDPR Article 44-49 compliance (international data transfers):
  • Region labels: Each tenant is tagged with a data residency region (EU, US, APAC, custom)
  • Geo-fenced storage: Database partitioning by region ensures EU data stays in EU
  • Regional API endpoints: Optional per-region API gateway routing (e.g., eu.platform.example.com)
  • Cross-region search: Federated queries can span regions only with explicit opt-in
  • Data location attestation: API endpoint returns storage location metadata per entity
Technical geo-fencing alone does not constitute GDPR-compliant transfer controls. Cross-border data flows require a valid legal transfer mechanism under GDPR Chapter V:
  • Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) (Art. 46(2)(c)) — the most common mechanism for international transfers
  • Adequacy decisions (Art. 45) — transfers to countries with an adequate level of data protection
  • Binding Corporate Rules (Art. 47) — for intra-group international transfers
Organizations should review their Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) with cloud providers to ensure EU-standard protections for transferred data, including appropriate SCCs.

Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)

When deploying the platform for processing personal data, consider the following for your DPIA:
Map the flow of personal data through the platform: authentication tokens, audit logs, data connections, query results, and agent interactions. Identify which components process personal data and the legal basis for each.
Configure the platform to collect only the data necessary for your use case. Disable anonymous access logging if not needed. Configure audit log retention to the minimum required period.
If using cloud-managed services (Cloud SQL, RDS, Azure Database), ensure your Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with the cloud provider covers the data being processed. If using cloud-based LLM APIs, a DPA with the LLM provider is required.
A formal DPIA is mandatory under Art. 35 for processing likely to result in high risk, including: systematic profiling, large-scale processing of sensitive data (e.g., healthcare via Data Insights), and automated decision-making. Engage your Data Protection Officer (DPO) per Art. 37 in reviewing the DPIA, and consult your supervisory authority under Art. 36 if residual risk remains high after mitigation.

Compliance Reporting

The platform provides compliance reports via the admin API:

Next Steps

SOC 2 Controls

See how the platform maps to SOC 2 Trust Service Criteria.

HIPAA Compliance

Review HIPAA compliance considerations for healthcare deployments.

Data Classification

Understand data classification levels and encryption requirements.

Backup & Restore

Configure backup retention to align with GDPR requirements.