Navigating HubSpot's New Sensitive Data Tools in the Smart CRM

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Navigating HubSpot's New Sensitive Data Tools in the Smart CRM

At HubSpot, we understand the need for both security and convenience when handling customer information. We've improved our data setup so that sensitive customer data can be safely stored right inside the HubSpot Smart CRM. 

The great thing? HubSpot's sensitive data features do more than just let you store confidential info. By giving your teams more unified view of your customer, all in one place, it allow them to use that information safely in their marketing, sales, and service activities – empowering you to deliver delightful, personalized experiences to your customers.

What are HubSpot's sensitive data features?

The sensitive data features are available on any Enterprise subscription and let you safely store, manage, and use confidential information inside the Smart CRM. The new features help protect your data and prevent business disruptions, manage your compliance better, and fuel your go-to-market.

Preventing Business Disruptions

To safeguard sensitive data and prevent disruptions, several security layers are put in place. As a reminder, all data in HubSpot is encrypted both during transmission (in transit) and while stored (at rest) by default. When sensitive data is turned on, the sensitive data that you store in the Smart CRM will get an additional layer of encryption to protect it from data breaches.

To further enhance your portal security and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, HubSpot Smart CRM lets you:

• Set inactive session timeouts to log users out after a specified period of inactivity.
• Use field-level permissions to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to this critical data.
• Monitor the security health of your HubSpot account through proactive security recommendations in the security center.

Got a sensitive data question? Don’t miss our community AMA

Managing Regulatory Compliance

By adding these data protection features to HubSpot, businesses in highly regulated industries can now run their HubSpot account in compliance with those regulations. Whether you're in healthcare, finance, or insurance, these features should help you navigate those waters with a lot less difficulty.

One specific U.S. law that the new sensitive data features are designed to support is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that safeguards how protected health information (PHI) is used and protected. HIPAA-related settings have been added to make it easier for healthcare businesses to operate their HubSpot portal in compliance with HIPAA. For instance, properties that store PHI are marked so they can be easily tracked in HubSpot's comprehensive audit logging tools.

Additionally, if you're not a HIPAA-covered entity, but a business associate who's lending products or services to clients who are, you can now also run your HubSpot instance in compliance with HIPAA by agreeing to our business associate agreement (BAA).

Fueling Your Go-to-Market

With your sensitive data is properly protected and is stored in compliance with regulations your business is subject to, the HubSpot Smart CRM gives your marketing, sales, and CS teams a much more complete and exact picture of your prospects and customers.

Those insights provide important and relevant context that help your reps delight buyers.

What's more is the Smart CRM will let you safely use this sensitive data to personalize experiences at scale. Whether it's using lists to more accurately segment audiences for a targeted marketing campaign, or using forms on web pages to qualify prospects, HubSpot helps you safely use sensitive data to fuel your GTM strategies.

How it works

In order to activate the new sensitive data features in HubSpot, you must be a Super Admin of a HubSpot Portal with an Enterprise subscription.

To enable the sensitive data tools, go to Settings > Privacy & Consent and click Configure sensitive data settings to set it up according to your portal's needs.

With these settings enabled, you are now able to safely store sensitive data inside the Smart CRM. Note that despite enabling this setting, HubSpot still imposes limitations on what types of sensitive data can be stored. Please refer to the sensitive data terms to understand what data is permitted.

For a more detailed setup walkthrough, read this knowledgebase article

Sensitive properties

One specialized new tool designed to store your sensitive data are the new sensitive properties.

To create a sensitive property, go to Settings > Properties and click "Create property". As you create that new property, you'll now get the option to turn it into a sensitive property. Then select which users should have view and/or edit access and we recommend you ensure the data is properly restricted.

Sensitive CRM activities and attachments

Sensitive properties are a great way for you to store and manage your structured sensitive data in the Smart CRM. We know though that a lot of data does not enter the CRM in a structured way. To that end, we've ensured that vital areas inside the Smart CRM, like activities and attachments are also covered by additional sensitive data protections.

To get the full view on where you can store and use sensitive data in HubSpot, please refer to these sensitive data terms.

Get a demo

Conclusion

And that's how you can navigate the sensitive data features inside HubSpot Smart CRM. They're easy to turn on, fast to set-up, and deliver a unified view of your customer.

In case you want to get familiar with the nuances of storing sensitive data in HubSpot and what our Business Associate Agreement (BAA) looks like, check out the Sensitive Data Terms.  

If you want to get step-by-step guide on how to turn on sensitive data and create sensitive properties, read this knowledgebase article.

And should you wnat to learn more about HubSpot’s privacy & security programs, compliance, certifications, and more, visit our trust center.