Data Subject Access Request (DSAR)
A request a person makes under UK GDPR for a copy of the personal data a business holds about them, with the information that explains how and why it’s being processed.
At a glance
Compliance- Why it matters
- UK statutory
- Related
- 3 terms
- Walkthroughs
- 3 guides
- Watch out
- Common misconception below
Plain English. UK spelling. No marketing filler.
Why this matters
Any individual can submit a DSAR — a customer, a former employee, a job applicant. The business has one calendar month to respond with the personal data, the categories of recipients, the retention periods, the lawful basis for processing and the rights the data subject has. The ICO can fine a business that fails to respond up to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. There is no fee allowed for a first request, only for "manifestly unfounded or excessive" repeats.
How YionStack handles it
The YionStack settings module includes a DSAR workspace at Settings → Data → Data Subject Requests. Enter the data subject’s identifier (email, customer ID, employee ID, contact ID) and the workspace scans every primary table for matching rows — contacts, deal activity, invoices, support tickets, audit logs, AI conversation logs. The assembled export packages as a single archive with one human-readable document per source table, plus the explanatory information UK GDPR requires (purposes, lawful basis, retention, sharing). The one-month clock starts when the request is received; the workspace tracks the deadline and surfaces it as a top-level deadline on the business profile so it cannot be missed.
Common misconception
A DSAR is not a request to delete data
A DSAR is a request to see the data. A separate UK GDPR right — the right to erasure (sometimes called "the right to be forgotten") — is what gives a person the option to ask for their data to be deleted. The two are often confused. YionStack handles both, in separate workflows, with separate audit trails.
The whole UK Business Operating System.
VAT, PAYE, Companies House, CIS, payroll, CRM and the AI that watches them — in one place built for UK businesses.