Five Signs Your Data Collection Process Isn’t Secure or Compliant

Most organizations, but particularly those in financial services, healthcare, legal, and government collect sensitive information through forms every day—customer details, health records, payment information, and employee data. Yet many companies unknowingly expose themselves to data breaches, compliance violations, and costly penalties because their data collection processes contain fundamental security gaps.

For CISOs, security leaders, compliance officers, IT directors, and data protection officers (DPOs) working under HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, and regional data residency laws, identifying these vulnerabilities is essential to maintaining regulatory compliance and protecting organizational reputation.

This post helps you identify five critical warning signs that your forms may be putting your organization at risk, and explains what compliant, secure data collection looks like.

Executive Summary

Main Idea: Organizations often use insecure data collection methods that create compliance violations and security vulnerabilities without realizing the specific gaps in their processes.

Why You Should Care: Identifying these warning signs early helps you avoid data breaches, regulatory penalties, failed audits, and reputational damage while protecting sensitive customer and employee information across multiple compliance frameworks.

Key Takeaways

1. Data transmission without encryption exposes sensitive information to interception during collection, violating HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS requirements that mandate encryption for protected data in transit and at rest.
2. Missing audit logs prevent you from proving compliance during regulatory examinations, as frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR require detailed records of who accessed what data and when.
3. Lack of access controls allows unauthorized users to view sensitive data collected through forms, creating compliance violations and increasing breach risk across multiple regulatory frameworks.
4. Third-party form tools without proper data processing agreements transfer legal liability to your organization and may store data in non-compliant locations, violating data sovereignty requirements essential for GDPR and regional data residency laws.
5. Forms that collect more data than necessary violate data minimization principles required by GDPR and expose your organization to unnecessary risk if that data is breached or misused.

Sign 1: Your Forms Don’t Use End-to-End Encryption

What does secure data transmission look like?

Secure data collection forms encrypt information from the moment someone enters it until authorized personnel access it on protected systems. Many organizations use basic HTTPS encryption for transmission but store collected data in unencrypted databases or email inboxes, creating a critical vulnerability that threatens regulatory compliance and organizational reputation.

HIPAA requires encryption of electronic protected health information (ePHI) both in transit and at rest. The HIPAA Security Rule specifically addresses this in the Technical Safeguards standards, requiring covered entities to implement mechanisms to encrypt and decrypt ePHI. PCI DSS Requirement 4 mandates strong cryptography and security protocols to safeguard cardholder data during transmission across open, public networks. GDPR Article 32 requires appropriate technical measures including encryption of personal data. For organizations subject to SOX requirements, encryption protects financial data from unauthorized access and tampering.

How to identify this problem

Check whether your data collection process includes these encryption gaps:

• Forms use HTTP instead of HTTPS (look for the padlock icon in the browser)
• Collected data arrives in standard email without encryption
• Form responses are stored in databases without encryption at rest
• Mobile forms sync data over unsecured connections
• File uploads containing sensitive information aren’t encrypted during storage

Organizations in financial services, healthcare, legal, and government sectors should implement advanced encryption methods that protect data throughout its entire lifecycle. AES 256 encryption represents the gold standard for data at rest, while TLS 1.2 or higher should secure data in transit. These measures help you feel confident about data security and reduce anxiety about regulatory violations.

Why this matters for audit preparation

Auditors specifically look for encryption implementation during compliance assessments. For HIPAA audits, the Office for Civil Rights reviews whether covered entities have conducted risk assessments and implemented encryption where appropriate. PCI DSS assessors test encryption during quarterly network scans and annual assessments. Without proper encryption, you’ll face audit findings that require immediate remediation, potentially damaging your organization’s reputation with customers, partners, and stakeholders.

Security leaders must monitor and document compliance for audits, demonstrating leadership in security practices while building trust with customers and partners. Proper encryption implementation shows your commitment to local data protection laws and helps you meet board and investor expectations.

Key insights:

• Encryption must protect data during transmission and storage, not just one or the other
• Regulatory frameworks specify encryption as a required technical safeguard
• Audit failures related to encryption typically result in mandatory corrective action plans

Sign 2: You Can’t Track Who Accessed Collected Data

What are audit trails and why do they matter?

An audit trail is a chronological record that documents who accessed, modified, or deleted data, along with timestamps and the specific actions taken. Secure data collection forms automatically generate these records without requiring manual documentation, giving security leaders peace of mind about cross-border data compliance.

HIPAA requires covered entities to implement hardware, software, and procedural mechanisms that record and examine activity in information systems containing ePHI. GDPR Article 30 mandates that organizations maintain records of processing activities, including who has access to personal data. These audit requirements exist because proving compliance requires demonstrating your controls actually work. For multinational corporations operating under multiple regulatory frameworks, comprehensive audit trails help maintain regulatory compliance across all jurisdictions.

Common audit trail gaps

Many organizations discover these problems during their first compliance audit:

• No record of which staff members viewed form submissions
• Cannot determine when sensitive data was accessed or exported
• No tracking of administrative changes to form settings or permissions
• Missing logs of data deletion or modification activities
• Inability to produce access reports for specific time periods

Implementing comprehensive audit logs is essential for demonstrating compliance. These logs must capture every interaction with sensitive data, creating a tamper-proof record that satisfies regulatory requirements while helping you demonstrate competence to stakeholders.

The compliance risk

Without comprehensive audit logs, you cannot prove compliance even if your security controls are otherwise adequate. During a GDPR investigation, supervisory authorities expect you to demonstrate exactly how personal data was processed. For HIPAA, the absence of audit controls can itself constitute a violation under the Security Rule’s audit controls standard.

Organizations preparing for SOC 2 audits or ISO 27001 certification will fail to meet requirements if they cannot demonstrate monitoring and logging of access to sensitive information. Effective audit logs provide the evidence auditors need to verify your security posture, helping CISOs and Compliance Officers maintain organizational reputation and sleep well knowing systems are secure.

Key insights:

• Audit trails must be automatic, tamper-proof, and comprehensive
• Most compliance frameworks explicitly require access logging capabilities
• Missing audit trails often indicate deeper security architecture problems

Sign 3: Anyone in Your Organization Can Access Form Responses

What does proper access control look like?

Secure data collection forms implement role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring that only authorized personnel with a legitimate business need can view collected information. This means HR forms should only be accessible to HR staff, patient intake forms should only reach healthcare providers, and payment forms should only be viewable by authorized finance personnel. For IT Directors responsible for integrating form data with enterprise systems, proper access controls ensure data sovereignty and residency requirements are met.

The principle of least privilege requires that users receive only the minimum access necessary to perform their job functions. HIPAA’s minimum necessary standard requires covered entities to limit access to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose. GDPR Article 32 requires organizational measures that ensure only authorized personnel can access personal data. For organizations in financial services and healthcare, these controls are essential to collecting sensitive data from web forms while maintaining compliance across HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and SOX frameworks.

Proper access controls prevent unauthorized viewing of sensitive form data. Attribute-based Access Controls (ABAC) provide even more granular control by considering user attributes, resource attributes, and environmental conditions when making access decisions, helping organizations demonstrate their commitment to data protection laws.

How to test your access controls

Ask yourself these questions about your current data collection process:

• Can you restrict form access by department, team, or individual?
• Do temporary employees or contractors have the same access as full-time staff?
• Can you revoke access immediately when someone changes roles or leaves?
• Are there administrator accounts with unlimited access to all forms?
• Do you have documentation showing who should access what data?

If you answered “no” or “I don’t know” to any of these questions, your access controls likely have gaps that could undermine stakeholder confidence.

Real-world consequences

Healthcare organizations have faced HIPAA penalties when employees accessed patient records without authorization. In one case, a hospital employee accessed the records of over 1,000 patients without a work-related reason. Even though no data breach occurred, the unauthorized access itself violated HIPAA, resulting in penalties and mandatory corrective action that damaged the organization’s reputation.

For PCI DSS compliance, Requirement 7 specifically mandates restricting access to cardholder data by business need to know. Failure to implement these access controls results in compliance gaps that assessors will identify during validation. Organizations should consider implementing both traditional role-based controls and ABAC for maximum protection, helping security leaders show leadership in security practices.

Key insights:

• Broad access to sensitive form data violates the principle of least privilege
• Role-based access controls should automatically limit data visibility
• Access control failures can constitute compliance violations even without a breach

Sign 4: Your Forms Store Data with Third-Party Providers You Haven’t Vetted

What’s the problem with third-party form tools?

Many organizations use convenient form builders like Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey without understanding where data is stored or who can access it. These platforms may store information on servers in multiple countries, share data with parent companies, or lack the security controls required for regulated data. For organizations in legal, government, and multinational sectors that must ensure data sovereignty and residency requirements, this creates significant compliance risks.

GDPR requires data processing agreements (DPAs) with any third party that processes personal data on your behalf. HIPAA requires Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) before sharing protected health information with vendors. PCI DSS holds you responsible for ensuring that service providers maintain appropriate security controls for cardholder data. Data Protection Officers must verify that third-party providers meet regional data residency laws and maintain organizational reputation through proper vendor management.

When evaluating third-party tools, organizations must ensure providers implement AI data governance policies if those tools use artificial intelligence to process form data. Additionally, verify that vendors maintain comprehensive audit logs of all data processing activities, helping you feel confident about data security across your vendor ecosystem.

How to identify vendor compliance gaps

Review your current form tools against these criteria:

• Have you signed a formal data processing agreement or business associate agreement?
• Do you know which countries store your collected data?
• Can the vendor access your data for their own purposes (like product improvement)?
• Does the vendor maintain relevant security certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001)?
• Can you export and delete all collected data if you terminate the service?

Free or low-cost form tools often cannot provide these assurances because their business models rely on data access or don’t support enterprise compliance requirements necessary for organizations in financial services, healthcare, and government sectors.

Data sovereignty and cross-border transfer issues

GDPR restricts transfers of personal data outside the European Economic Area unless specific safeguards are in place. Many US-based form providers store data on servers distributed globally. After the Schrems II decision invalidated Privacy Shield, organizations must ensure that alternative transfer mechanisms like Standard Contractual Clauses are properly implemented to maintain peace of mind about cross-border data compliance.

Healthcare organizations subject to HIPAA cannot simply use any cloud service. The covered entity remains responsible for protecting ePHI even when using a business associate’s services. Organizations must verify that third-party providers implement appropriate access controls and maintain detailed audit logs that meet HIPAA requirements. For multinational corporations, ensuring data sovereignty and residency requirements helps demonstrate your commitment to local data protection laws and builds trust with customers and partners.

Key insights:

• You remain legally responsible for data security even when using third-party tools
• Free form tools typically lack the contractual protections required for regulated data
• Data sovereignty requirements may prohibit storing sensitive information with certain providers

Sign 5: Your Forms Collect More Information Than Necessary

What is data minimization and why does it matter?

Data minimization means collecting only the personal information you actually need for a specific, legitimate purpose. Many forms request information “just in case” or because templates include unnecessary fields, creating compliance violations and increasing breach risk. For Compliance Officers working to maintain regulatory compliance across multiple frameworks, data minimization reduces the compliance burden and demonstrates security maturity to auditors and stakeholders.

GDPR Article 5(1)(c) explicitly requires that personal data must be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary. The more sensitive data you collect and store, the greater your obligation to protect it and the more severe the consequences if that data is breached. Organizations subject to HIPAA, PCI DSS, and SOX must carefully evaluate what information they collect through forms to avoid unnecessary compliance obligations.

Effective AI data governance includes data minimization as a core principle, ensuring that AI systems and automated processes only access necessary information. Similarly, AI data governance frameworks help organizations identify when forms collect excessive data that could be used inappropriately by AI systems, reducing anxiety about regulatory violations.

Common examples of excessive data collection

Review your forms for these unnecessary data requests:

• Asking for Social Security numbers when employee ID numbers would suffice
• Collecting full credit card details when you only need payment authorization
• Requesting home addresses for services delivered entirely online
• Gathering date of birth when you only need to verify someone is over 18
• Asking for health information unrelated to the service being provided

Each unnecessary data field increases your compliance burden and creates additional risk. If you experience a data breach, regulators will ask why you collected information you didn’t need, potentially damaging your organizational reputation and stakeholder trust.

Impact on audit preparation

During compliance audits, assessors examine whether your data collection practices align with stated purposes. For GDPR compliance, data protection authorities expect you to document the legal basis for processing each category of personal data. If you cannot explain why specific information was necessary, you may face findings of non-compliance that undermine your ability to demonstrate competence to stakeholders and meet board and investor expectations.

PCI DSS Requirement 3 specifically limits the storage of cardholder data to only what is necessary for business, legal, or regulatory purposes. Storing full credit card numbers when you only needed to process a one-time payment violates this requirement. For organizations in financial services collecting sensitive data from web forms, this creates significant audit risks.

Organizations should document data collection justifications in their AI data governance policies, especially when automated systems process form data. Maintain comprehensive audit logs showing that only necessary data fields are collected and that access controls prevent unauthorized viewing of sensitive information. This helps IT Directors monitor and document compliance for audits while helping security leaders sleep well knowing systems are secure.

How to fix this problem

Conduct a data collection audit:

1. List every field in your forms
2. Document the business purpose for each field
3. Identify which fields are required versus optional
4. Remove any fields without a clear, necessary purpose
5. Review forms annually to ensure continued relevance

Key insights:

• Every unnecessary data field increases compliance obligations and breach risk
• GDPR explicitly requires limiting collection to necessary information
• Data minimization demonstrates security maturity and reduces audit findings

How Kiteworks Addresses These Security and Compliance Gaps

Kiteworks provides secure data collection forms purpose-built for organizations in financial services, healthcare, legal, government, and multinational corporations handling sensitive information under regulatory frameworks like HIPAA, GDPR, PCI, SOX, and regional data residency laws. The platform addresses all five warning signs discussed in this post through integrated security and compliance features designed specifically for CISOs, Security Leaders, Compliance Officers, IT Directors, and Data Protection Officers.

End-to-end encryption with customer-managed keys ensures that data is protected from the moment it’s entered into a form until authorized personnel access it. Unlike third-party form tools where the vendor controls encryption keys, Kiteworks implements a customer-managed key architecture where only your organization can decrypt sensitive information. The platform maintains FIPS 140-3 validation for cryptographic modules, meeting the highest government security standards. Kiteworks uses AES 256 encryption for data at rest and implements advanced encryption methods throughout the data lifecycle, helping you feel confident about data security and maintain organizational reputation.

Comprehensive audit trails and compliance reporting automatically track every access, modification, and deletion action across all forms. Kiteworks generates detailed reports showing who accessed what data and when, with tamper-proof audit logs that satisfy HIPAA audit controls, GDPR Article 30 recordkeeping requirements, and SOC 2 monitoring requirements. These audit logs dramatically simplify preparation for regulatory examinations and certification audits by providing complete visibility into all data access and processing activities. This enables you to monitor and document compliance for audits, reduce anxiety about regulatory violations, and demonstrate your commitment to local data protection laws to stakeholders.

Granular role-based access controls enforce the principle of least privilege by restricting form access to only authorized personnel. Administrators can configure permissions by department, team, or individual, ensuring that sensitive information collected through forms reaches only those with a legitimate business need. The platform supports both traditional access controls and attribute-based Access Controls (ABAC) for maximum flexibility. Access rights can be revoked immediately when employees change roles or leave the organization, helping you show leadership in security practices and build trust with customers and partners.

Private cloud deployment with data sovereignty guarantees keeps your collected data under your direct control in your chosen geographic location. Unlike multi-tenant SaaS form providers that store data across distributed servers, Kiteworks gives you complete visibility and control over where sensitive information resides, addressing GDPR data sovereignty requirements and other data localization regulations. This ensures data sovereignty and residency requirements are met, providing peace of mind about cross-border data compliance and helping you meet board and investor expectations.

The platform’s unified approach integrates secure data collection forms with encrypted file sharing, managed file transfer, and secure email within a single governed environment. This integration provides centralized audit logs, consistent access controls, and comprehensive AI data governance capabilities, giving compliance and security teams centralized visibility and control over sensitive content regardless of how it enters the organization. For IT Directors responsible for integrating form data with enterprise systems, this unified approach simplifies compliance management while helping you demonstrate competence to stakeholders and sleep well knowing systems are secure.

To learn more about mitigating security and compliance risks when collecting sensitive information in data forms, schedule a custom demo today.

Additional Resources

• Blog Post Top 5 Security Features for Online Web Forms
• Video Kiteworks Snackable Bytes: Web Forms
• Blog Post How to Protect PII in Online Web Forms: A Checklist for Businesses
• Best Practices Checklist How to Secure Web Forms
  Best Practices Checklist
• Blog Post How to Create GDPR-compliant Forms