Over the past decade, data has evolved from being an operational byproduct to becoming one of the most valuable assets of any business. The explosion of IoT devices, cloud applications, and AI-driven systems has generated unprecedented volumes of personal and non-personal data. Alongside this growth, regulations in the EU have progressed in step. From GDPR’s focus on privacy and protection, to the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts ensuring fair practices online, and now the EU Data Act, which sets out comprehensive rules for data access, sharing, and use.
For any organization operating in or serving the EU, understanding and preparing for this regulatory progression is essential for compliance and competitiveness.
For IT and security leaders in particular, this evolution has heightened expectations: they must ensure systems are interoperable, data handling is auditable, and compliance is built into everyday operations rather than managed as an afterthought.
What is the EU Data Act?
The EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854) came into force in December 2023, with most obligations becoming applicable from 12 September 2025. It sets out rules on fairness, access, and use of data, particularly data generated by connected devices and digital services. Its core goals are to:
Ensure fairness in how data is accessed and used across sectors.
Clarify rights over user-generated data and the conditions for data sharing.
Enable portability and interoperability of data, promoting innovation and competition.
Guarantee transparency and user control over how data is handled.
The regulation imposes new technical, contractual, and operational obligations on manufacturers, service providers, and any "data holders." Non-compliance can lead to substantial penalties, making readiness critical.
Key obligations and impacts for businesses
For IT and security teams, the below obligations represent their most critical priorities. These include ensuring secure access to data, designing systems for portability and compliance by default, and maintaining readiness for enforcement. Each directly impacts how IT and security teams handle identity, access, and system governance under the EU Data Act.
How an intelligent workflow platform can help
Meeting the requirements of the EU Data Act isn’t just a legal challenge. It’s an operational one. Compliance demands interoperability, transparency, and orchestration across complex IT and data ecosystems. That’s where platforms like Tines come in.
Interoperability
The Act calls for seamless data access and portability. Tines connects with any system that has an API, eliminating silos and ensuring data can flow securely between tools, business units, and external stakeholders.
Auditability and control
Transparency and accountability are central to compliance. Tines provides built-in audit trails, governance controls, and change management features that make it simple to prove compliance and safeguard data integrity.
Secure by design
Sharing data doesn’t mean compromising security. With orchestration that is secure by design, IT teams can enforce least-privilege access, automate data handling policies, and ensure sensitive data is protected when shared.
Scalable compliance workflows
The EU Data Act requires organizations to adapt their processes as obligations evolve. Tines allows IT teams to automate repeatable workflows like data access requests, IAM checks, and system audits. These can be scaled across thousands of users and devices without adding headcount.
Cross-functional alignment
Compliance with the Act isn’t the responsibility of one function. It demands coordination across IT, security, compliance, and legal. Tines acts as the orchestration layer that aligns these stakeholders, ensuring compliance is met without slowing down operations.
Example scenario: IAM compliance workflows
Consider a global enterprise onboarding a new employee. Under the EU Data Act, organizations must handle user identity and access data securely, ensure transparency, and maintain auditable records. This process will always involve multiple systems, but without orchestration there can be errors, delays, and the risk of non-compliance.
With Tines, the process is streamlined:
Onboarding trigger: HR system update automatically kicks off a workflow in Tines.
Identity creation: Tines orchestrates account provisioning across IAM and directory systems.
Access controls: Least-privilege roles are applied consistently across apps and systems.
Compliance validation: Automated checks confirm alignment with security certifications (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2) and produce an auditable trail.
Ongoing monitoring: When the employee later offboards, the same workflow ensures all accounts are deprovisioned quickly and securely.
What once required manual steps and risked gaps in compliance can now be executed in minutes, with security, auditability, and compliance built in by design, directly supporting obligations under the EU Data Act, such as providing structured, machine-readable data access, maintaining audit trails, and enforcing least-privilege access controls.
Why Tines?
Vendor-agnostic: Works across any tech stack, avoiding lock-in.
Secure by design: Governance, auditability, and enterprise-grade security included.
Operational agility: Automates repetitive compliance processes so IT, compliance, and legal teams can focus on higher-value work.
Accessible to all skill levels: From practitioners to executives, stakeholders can engage with workflows at the level they need.
Closing thought
The EU Data Act represents a turning point in how businesses handle and share data. Compliance will require more than checklists - it requires orchestrated, secure, and scalable workflows that reduce friction across IT, compliance, legal, and the wider business.
With Tines, teams can turn compliance into an enabler, not a blocker.
By securely automating and orchestrating processes, organizations can meet regulatory obligations, protect sensitive data, and stay focused on growth.