SAR Portal – Privacy Definitions
Published: November 11, 2018
Last Updated: June 27, 2024

SAR Portal
The GDPR and subsequent chain of privacy laws passed in countries around the world have resulted in a slough of new lingo for privacy professionals and IT professionals to learn. One of these new terms is the SAR portal. SAR portal stands for Subject Access Request Portal. Many of the new privacy laws grants certain rights to the citizens of their countries that allow them to make certain requests to businesses and other organizations that collect and process personal data. The types of rights that are granted to citizens varies from country to country. Some example requests that can be made are:
- Access personal data on file
- Correct or rectify personal data
- Request to have personal data deleted
- Object to profiling
- Challenge automated decision making algorithms
- Have personal data transferred from one entity to another
- Restrict processing (collect and store data only)
Benefits of Portal Software
There requests typically have to be responded to in defined timelines and violations carry a fine. As such many organizations, especially those that manage a portfolio of applications or experience a higher volume of these requests implement centralized request portals where citizens are funneled to make their requests. These SAR portals reduce complexity in the fulfillment of requests when compared to managing multiple email inboxes on different domains (privacy@yourdomain1.com, privacy@yourdomain2.com), call in requests, mail in requests, or other channels. By centralizing privacy teams and funneling privacy requests through a central portal, fulfillment errors and delays are reduced. The list of countries implementing national privacy laws is growing and implementing a compliance and response workflow for these type of requests can benefit companies without a compliance burden. Consumers are coming to take fulfillment of these requests as a granted, and denial of a request or even inability to submit one can damage customer trust and relationship with the brand. Therefore companies wishing to remain competitive in the global landscape and build credibility with their customers should consider the implementation of a SAR portal. Links to submit requests to the portal are often times included in the Privacy Policy a natural place to visit when looking for information on privacy related concerns.