The compliance of an organization to a given regulation regarding the use of personal data requires carefully designed policies and procedures and is not just limited to the different technologies handling the data. Nevertheless, using the appropriate technology can considerably reduce the overall effort required to achieve compliance as well as the probability of committing costly errors. In this talk, we will use the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) as an example to dig into the different capabilities that Apache Pulsar provides to support very demanding requirements like consent management and privacy by design. Then, we will explore how we can put those capabilities together to create a robust enterprise architecture around Apache Pulsar to deal with personal data.

1. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
GDPR and Apache Pulsar: a natural fit

2. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
Christos Anagnostakis
Freelance Enterprise Architect
Speaker Bio

3. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
Agenda
I. Introduction
II. The problem to solve
III. Legitimate Interest in Pulsar
IV. Consent in Pulsar
V. Please forget me
VI. Q&A

4. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
I. Introduction

5. Life before GDPR

6. And then, one day:

7. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021

8. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021

9. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
II. The problem to solve

10. Legitimate
Interest
Consent

11. So, what about our apps?
Legitimate
Interest
Consent

12. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
Let’s see how Pulsar can help us build
privacy into our architecture

13. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
III. Legitimate Interest (LI)

14. Legitimate
Interest

15. Can Pulsar deliver this?

16. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
We need 3 things:
1. Identify personal data within a message in a
non-ambiguous manner
2. Provide Pulsar a way to find them
3. Provide Pulsar a way to find out which are
authorised to access
4. Apply the filter

17. 1. Personal data in a message

18. 1. Personal data in a message (cont)
Different teams
might use different
names for the
same data!

19. 1. Personal data in a message (cont)
Metadata create
non-ambiguous
references to
the personal
data

20. 1. Personal data in a message (cont)

21. 2. Where can Pulsar find them?
In the
schema!

22. 2. Where can Pulsar find them? (cont)
Pulsar can simply read
the metadata in the
schema and find which
attributes represent
personal data

23. So, we now
have those

24. 3. Which ones can we access?
Pulsar
provides this
out-of-the-box
If Pulsar can
provide this out-
of-the-box as well
then we are done!

25. 3. Which ones can we access? (cont)
Configure with
the Pulsar
Manager UI

26. 3. Which ones can we access? (cont)
Configure with an
external system using
the Restful end-points
available in Pulsar

27. We now
have those
as well

28. 4. Apply the filter
The broker finds the
attributes that should
not be accessible by
applying this
formula…

29. 4. Apply the filter (cont)
…and nulls the
“forbidden” values

30. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
So, to apply LI we need to:
1. Earmark the personal data using the Pulsar
Manager or the Restful end-points available in
Pulsar
2. Configure the appropriate roles using the
Pulsar Manager or the Restful end-points
available in Pulsar
3. Let the broker do the rest

31. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
IV. Consent

32. We need a
solution for this!

33. Consent

34. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
We need 3 things:
1. Store the consent
2. Access the consent
3. Filter the data according to the context

35. Information necessary to
be able to prove that the owner of the
data knows what data will be
processed and how
Proof that the consent was captured
by a well defined process (ex. Session
ids)
1. Store the consent
We need to store
something like this

36. A Pulsar topic is very
convenient for storing
consent and the
associated additional info
We get an immutable
log of the consent
history for free
1. Store the consent (cont)

37. We can push the consent to ELK
stack for external use or provide quick
access for auditing purposes
2. Access the consent

38. Ensure reliable filtering
of the “forbidden” values
3. Filter the data (option 1)
Exposed to
accidental source
code changes
Consent does
not change
that often
Need for additional
technology

39. 3. Filter the data (option 2)
Exposed to
accidental source
code changes
Up to date consent
information in
queryable form
Ensure reliable filtering
of the “forbidden” values

40. Up to date consent
information in
queryable formc
3. Filter the data (option 3)
Ensure reliable filtering
of the “forbidden” values

41. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
V. Please forget me!

42. Pulsar Virtual Summit North America 2021
What does “forget me” mean?
1. Put the personal data “beyond use” (as soon
as you receive the data owner’s request)
2. Delete the personal data (as soon as your
legal team says so)