How can you ensure secure, compliant data collection at your organization?
If your forms are collecting sensitive data without airtight security and clear governance, you’re exposing your organization to serious risks such as compliance gaps, data breaches, and lost trust.
Data stewardship goes beyond checking boxes. It’s about protecting the information you collect, building trust with your users, and setting your business up for long-term success.
FormAssembly helps organizations collect, manage, and protect data with enterprise-grade security and compliance baked in, from encryption and access controls to customizable retention policies and regulatory certifications like HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS. In this post, we’ll explore how strong data stewardship starts with your forms and why getting it right creates a business advantage, not just a safety net.
Why does data governance matter?
CIOs and CISOs worldwide are adopting stringent data policies and pledging to protect their end users’ data at all points of collection and communication. In FormAssembly’s commissioned survey on digital data collection, we investigated how those pledges work in practice; the results were surprising.
Our report showed that most organizations run on a patchwork of systems to collect and store their data, with less-than-stringent application of their policies across disparate systems. Business leaders aren’t confident in their data security – 26% of CIOs and CISOs worry that there are gaps in their data policies, and 81% of organizations report that they lack full visibility into their data collection system.
There’s clear room for improvement in data stewardship, with 58% of organizations concerned about data privacy, security, and compliance in the data collection process. Gaps in security, visibility, and compliance highlight the need for a unified, secure approach to data collection from the very first touchpoint with customers. Since forms are often the primary gateway for collecting sensitive information, they represent a critical vulnerability – or opportunity – for your data governance strategy.
As an entry point for your customer’s data, it’s important that FormAssembly gets it right. Here’s how we bake security into our everyday practices and make it easier for your organization to adhere to (and improve!) your data standards.
Security measures
The first step in protecting your customer data is ensuring the right approach to security. Here’s how we help you protect the information your forms collect with data privacy best practices in mind:
- FormAssembly integrates enterprise-grade security measures and compliance tools to safeguard customer data at every step. We’re proud to boast security grades of “A” across the board from SecurityScorecard, HSTS Preload List, ImmuniWeb, and Qualys SSL Labs.
- Our Security Certifications adhere to the industry standards with audits and certifications that reduce risk and ensure compliance. We’re proud of our up-to-date PCI, ISO, and SOC 2 certifications, among others, which keep us ahead of the curve with security protections for the sensitive data we help you collect.
- FormAssembly is hosted on AWS, providing scalability and strong security measures, including AWS’s firewall features, industry-standard encrypted data at rest using AWS’s Key Management Service, and threat detection through AWS Guardduty.
Ensuring regulatory compliance
For us, compliance is not just about keeping FormAssembly held to the industry standard. We want to ensure your organization meets its regulatory needs, too. Here’s how we help:
- Secure Compliant Data Collection – Your data is encrypted and protected both in transit and at rest, granting your customers peace of mind that the information they’re sharing is only shared with you.
- Sensitive Data Processing – We are PCI DSS Level 1 Certified and support your organization’s data stewardship requirements, including HIPAA, GDPR, GLBA, and other regulatory requirements. With select FormAssembly plans, your organization can choose between 7 AWS regions worldwide to host your data and backups securely.
Careful data collection
Compliance and security start with the way you approach secure data collection. We set up systems to ensure proper data stewardship from the second your customers open up a form, including:
- Mobile-Responsive Web Forms – Collect data on any device, anywhere, in formats that fit your end users’ devices. Plus, adhere to data security best practices and comply with laws and regulations for handling credit card information, such as PCI DSS.
- Offline Form Submissions – No internet? No problem. FormAssembly’s offline mode lets your customers download forms to their mobile device’s local storage. Information can be captured and submitted without internet access; the local cache will sync when reconnected.
- Customizable User Permissions & Access Control – FormAssembly’s Access Control lets you make any field hidden or read-only. These granular settings are helpful when you want to use hidden information to trigger certain form behaviors based on a respondent’s details. It’s also useful when you want to show users their information without allowing them to change it.
- SAML, CAS & LDAP Integration – Enable secure user authentication with existing directory services that adhere to your organization’s security practices. Protect your customer data and operate with confidence.
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – It’s the industry standard for a reason, safeguarding your accounts against vulnerabilities like phishing attacks and malware. Add layers of protection to prevent unauthorized account access.
- Secure File Scan – We don’t let your file uploads open you up to attacks. FormAssembly has built-in automatic malware and virus scanning for uploaded files on all Enterprise and Government plans.
- Data Retention & Purge Customization – Automate secure data deletion to meet compliance needs, purging obsolete data at routine times and improving your database performance at once.
- ReCaptcha & AKISMET – Bots be gone! Prevent spam and unauthorized form submissions with advanced detection and filters.
Beyond compliance: data stewardship as your business advantage
With the amount of data your organization collects, it’s easy to do the bare minimum and call it a day. But data stewardship done well is a competitive advantage, not just a requirement to stay compliant with HIPAA and GDPR. It starts with your forms but bubbles up into your data infrastructure and approach to information collection. By pledging secure data practices, your organization is future-proofing for longevity and positioning itself as a leader in your industry.
Evolving regulations will shape data governance in the coming years. Building business intelligence infrastructure now will prepare your organization for the future of data privacy. Organizations that embrace comprehensive data stewardship don’t just protect information – they transform compliance costs into customer loyalty and brand value.
