The right to be forgotten. It’s a concept that sounds great for people who are concerned about their personal information (PII) but it’s a complex issue for developers and data professionals.

GDPR is the European law that is intended to empower individuals with the ability to control the surface area of their individual data. GDPR is short for General Data Protection Regulation. This law carries heavy penalties for non-compliance.

Classification could be the first step in understanding your data. Think of this step as placing your data into buckets that are defined by various levels, such as financial or health care.If you don’t classify your data how do you know what’s sensitive and what’s not?

The latest version of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) includes tools for data classification. This tool is used to help you identify and classify the column for all types of scenarios; not just GDPR.

It’s very easy to run and use. From Object Explorer, Right-Click a database and choose Tasks. Next click Classify Data…