A customer asks you to delete all the personal data you hold about them.
Now you need to find that data. It could be in your CRM, support tickets, billing software, cloud files, or an internal database. You may also need to verify the person, check what can be deleted, get another team to remove it, and prove that the request was completed on time.
Doing all of that by email, spreadsheets, and manual searches gets messy quickly.
This is what DSAR automation tools are meant to handle. But the level of automation differs from one product to another.
I compared Redacto, OneTrust, Ketch, Securiti, and IQWorks to see which parts of a DSAR each tool can handle and which parts still need your team.
The main thing to check is how much of the DSAR process the tool can actually handle.
Some tools mainly collect requests and assign tasks. Others can also find the requester’s data, verify their identity, trigger deletion or correction in connected systems, redact records, and prepare the response.
Before choosing a tool, check:
The fewer steps your team has to handle manually, the more useful the automation becomes as request volume grows.

Redacto is a privacy management platform that automates data discovery, record matching, redaction, and request handling for DSARs.
When a request comes in, Redacto can locate and extract the requester’s personal data from databases, applications, and cloud storage. It then matches the data to the individual using the identifiers provided with the request.
If the retrieved records contain sensitive information about other people, Redacto can automatically redact it before the records are shared. The request, internal notifications, and fulfillment history are managed from the same platform.

Redacto handles several parts of a DSAR that would otherwise require someone on your team to find, check, and prepare the data manually.

OneTrust automates a DSAR from the point a person submits the request to the point the completed response is sent back to them.
For example, if someone asks for their data to be deleted, OneTrust can verify who they are, find their personal data, check whether any of it is under a legal hold, and delete the data that can be removed. For an access request, it can retrieve the data, redact information that should not be disclosed, and return the files through a secure customer portal.
This means the same workflow can cover both finding the data and taking action on it, rather than stopping after the request has been collected.
OneTrust brings the work needed to fulfill a DSAR into the same process. Once a request is received, the workflow can move through identity verification, data discovery, retrieval, and the action required for that request.
The automation also accounts for steps that can complicate fulfillment. Before data is deleted, OneTrust can check for legal holds. Before information is returned for an access request, records can be redacted so data that should not be disclosed is removed.
The completed response can then be delivered through a secure customer portal. OneTrust also keeps documentation of the request and how it was fulfilled, which gives the organization a record if it later needs to show how the DSAR was handled.

Ketch automates privacy requests from the time they are submitted until the required action is completed. It can send requests across 1,000+ connected systems, apps, and models.
A person can submit a request through a branded form, inside a product, or through an API. Ketch can then verify the person and use its data map to find which systems hold their personal data.
Ketch can also connect different identifiers that belong to the same person. This helps when someone appears under an email address in one system, another account ID in a second system, and a different identifier elsewhere.
Once a request comes in, Ketch can automatically send it to the right system or person based on the request type, region, system, and owner. This reduces the need to manually work out who needs to handle each part of the request.
Its data map shows where the person’s data is stored, while Identity Sync connects the different identifiers linked to that person. Ketch can then track the work needed across those systems and show the progress of each request.
For deletion and opt-out requests, Ketch can apply the change to historical data, not just data collected after the request. It can also keep proof of which systems received the request and what action was taken.

Securiti is a data privacy and security platform with a dedicated DSR Robotic Automation product. It combines privacy request management with Securiti’s data discovery and People Data Graph capabilities.
A key part of the product is its People Data Graph. It builds a relationship between personal data and the person it belongs to, which helps Securiti handle requests when information about one person exists in different data sources.

Securiti uses its People Data Graph to automatically find a person’s information across hundreds of structured and unstructured data systems.
From there, its robotic automation creates the tasks required to process the request. These tasks can follow pre-built or custom workflows, and different stakeholders can work on them without passing personal information through email.
The DSR Workbench is used to manage this work. It provides current regulatory guidance, real-time reports, audit logs, and a dashboard showing DSR activity. The final results can then be shared with the requester using encryption. Its main DSAR capabilities include:

IQWorks is a privacy and cyber governance platform. For DSARs, it uses ComplyIQ to manage the request workflow and DiscoverIQ to find the requester’s personal data across connected systems. ComplyIQ itself covers DSR management from request intake through fulfillment, including deadlines and audit records.
A useful difference here is how the two products connect. From a request in ComplyIQ, you can launch a DiscoverIQ scan that is already filled with the requester’s name and email. DiscoverIQ can then search databases, SaaS apps, file shares, and endpoints for matching data. This avoids starting a separate search and manually entering the requester’s details again.
Requests can come through a branded public form and are collected in one ComplyIQ queue. Before a request is accepted, the requester confirms their email using a one-time code, while CAPTCHA helps block automated submissions.
Once accepted, the queue shows the request type, status, owner, age, and deadline, and flags requests that are due soon or already overdue. This means deadlines do not have to be tracked separately in a spreadsheet.
When the personal data needs to be found, you can launch a DiscoverIQ scan directly from the request. The scan opens with the requester’s name and email already filled in. DiscoverIQ then searches the connected data sources for the requester’s information. IQWorks documents DiscoverIQ as its data discovery layer across databases, SaaS apps, file shares, and endpoints.
The request record can also be used to email the requester or contact processors about actions such as deleting or correcting data. Those conversations stay with the request, giving the organization a record of how it was handled.
So, from the same request, you can:
The right choice depends on which part of your DSAR process takes the most time. That could be finding personal data, deleting it across systems, matching records to the right person, or keeping requests on deadline. Here’s a simple way to choose:
DSAR automation is useful when it removes the work that normally happens after a request comes in. That means finding the person’s data, making sure you have the right records, completing the request, and keeping proof of what was done.
The five tools in this list can all help with that, but the right choice depends on your data and how your requests are handled today. Before choosing one, check what it can actually automate in your systems and where your team will still need to step in.
Redacto is worth looking at if data discovery is a big part of that work. It can find personal data across databases, applications, and cloud storage, match it to the requester, redact information about other people, and keep the request history together.
See how Redacto handles DSAR automation.

