How to use Google Vault for records management and regulatory compliance?

Efficient records management and regulatory compliance are essential elements for any company. With the growing amount of information generated and shared online, it is essential to have reliable tools that help us manage and protect our data. This is where it comes into play. Google Vault, a powerful solution provided by Google for records management and the normative compliance. 

In this article, we will explore how to use Google Vault to ensure the integrity of our records, comply with relevant regulations and standards, and ensure peace of mind in terms of the security and privacy of our organization's data.

1. What is Google Vault? 

Google Vault It is a tool of information control, records management and normative compliance provided by Google. With Vault, businesses and organizations can securely manage, retain, lock, search, and export stored user data. Google Workspace, in Gmail, Google Drive, Google Meet and Google Chat.

With Google Vault, companies can define retention policies and data retention to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. It also allows you to quickly search and retrieve relevant information when necessary, whether for internal investigations, legal requests or compliance audits.

Additionally, Google Vault offers tools for security and control to protect sensitive data. It allows you to establish permissions and access to different users, perform activity audits and establish alerts to detect suspicious or non-compliant behavior. 

2. How does Google Vault work? 

Google Vault serves as a comprehensive compliance and records management platform. Provides tools to configure retention policies, search and retrieve data, comply with regulations and standards, and protect the security of information in your organization.

It is important to keep in mind that for In order for Vault to search and retain user data, users must have a Google Workspace license and a Vault license. Vault licenses included are:

• Frontline Standard
• Business Plus
• Enterprise
• All editions of Education
• Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus (domain verified access only)
• Google Workspace Business

How licenses work

• If Vault is included in your edition, a license for this service is automatically assigned to all users in your organization.
• If Vault is available as an add-on license, you can purchase Vault licenses for some or all users in your organization. Vault only has access to data from users who have Vault licenses assigned to them. 
• If you delete a user or required license, their data may be permanently deleted and no longer available in Vault.

Now, to start using Google Vault, follow these steps:

If your organization has an edition of Google Workspace that doesn't include Google Vault, purchase Vault licenses.

Ask a Google Workspace super administrator to configure user access and Vault privileges. The super administrator can also create default retention rules to start retaining data immediately. We recommend that you work with your organization's legal or compliance team to determine information governance and e-discovery requirements.

Vault users can log in and start using this service. 

3. Advantages of Google Vault 

Google Vault offers several benefits for records management and compliance in an organization. Some of these advantages include:

• Simplified regulatory compliance: Google Vault helps meet legal and regulatory requirements by enabling retention and search of data stored in Google products. This facilitates the process of responding to legal requests and compliance audits.
• Fast and accurate search: Google Vault provides a powerful search function that allows you to find relevant information in large volumes of data. Advanced filters and search options allow for precision and agility when searching for specific data, keywords, dates, and more.
• Personalized preservation and retention: With Google Vault, you can set custom retention policies for different types of data. This ensures that data is retained for as long as necessary to comply with your organization's specific legal and regulatory requirements.
• Protection of sensitive data: Google Vault offers security and monitoring tools to protect sensitive data. You can set permissions and access to ensure that only authorized people can access information. You can also audit activity and receive alerts about changes or suspicious behavior.
• Data export and production: Google Vault allows data to be exported in different formats, making it easy to use in internal investigations, legal requests, and external audits. This helps streamline processes and ensures data availability when needed.
• Integration with Google products: Google Vault integrates directly with popular Google products such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Meet, and Google Chat. This makes record management and regulatory compliance easier by having all data stored in one place.

4. Which Google Workspace apps can I get information from?

With Google Vault, you can obtain information and manage logs from the following applications Google Workspace:

Gmail: Google Vault lets you search, retain, and export emails and attachments stored in Gmail accounts within your Google Workspace domain.

Google Drive: You can use Google Vault to search, retain, and export files stored in Google Drive, including documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other file types.

Google Meet: Google Vault allows you to search and retain records of meetings held in Google Meet, such as meeting recordings and chat logs.

Google Chat: You can use Google Vault to search, retain, and export conversations and chat messages made in Google Chat, both in individual messages and in chat rooms (as long as history is turned on).

Google Voice: Text messages, voice messages and their transcripts, and Google Voice call logs for Google Workspace

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5. What information can the Google Vault administrator retrieve? 

As administrator, you have a higher level of access and control over the information within Google Vault compared to regular users. Can access and extract the following information:

1. Emails and attachments: You can search, view, and export emails and attachments stored in Gmail accounts within your Google Workspace domain.
2. Google Drive documents and files: You can search, view, and export documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other types of files stored in Google Drive.
3. Google Meet Recordings and Check-ins: You have the ability to search and access recordings of meetings held in Google Meet, as well as chat logs associated with those meetings.
4. Google Chat conversations and messages: You can search, view, and export conversations and chat messages made in Google Chat, both in individual messages and in chat rooms.
5. Google Voice calls and texts: If your organization uses Google Voice, you can search and access logs of calls and text messages made through that platform.
6. Messages in Google Groups discussion groups: If you use Google Groups for discussion group communication, you can search, view, and export messages in those groups.

6. What plans is Google Vault included in? 

Vault is included in the editions Business and Enterprise of Google Workspace Without aditional costs.

• Frontline Standard
• Business Plus
• Enterprise
• All editions of Education
• Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Essentials Plus (domain verified access only)
• Google Workspace Business

7. Who can take advantage of Google Vault?

In reality, any organization or individual that requires effective records management, regulatory compliance, and the ability to securely search and access data can take advantage of Google Vault. 

But it is true that it is a very useful tool for Google account administrators of your company, as it allows you to control the information of each user you define, in addition to establishing personalized retention policies, managing access permissions and protecting the organization's sensitive data. They can also use the advanced search capabilities to assist in the technical problem solving and the lost data recovery.

With Google Vault it is also possible to access searches, messages and file export history, which will allow you to always have company documents under control.