Compliant Data Sharing
Compliant Data Sharing is a Setup feature that provides enhanced data sharing controls for organizations in regulated industries.
Definition
Compliant Data Sharing is a Setup feature that provides enhanced data sharing controls for organizations in regulated industries. It enables granular, record-level data access rules that comply with regulatory requirements like HIPAA, FINRA, and GDPR, ensuring sensitive data is only accessible to authorized users.
In plain English
“Here's a simple way to think about it: Compliant Data Sharing exists for the rules normal sharing can't express. HIPAA minimum-necessary, FINRA information barriers, GDPR purpose limitations - record-level access in regulator-aligned terms.”
Worked example
A healthcare organization using Health Cloud enables Compliant Data Sharing to ensure that patient records are only visible to the care team assigned to each patient. A nurse in the cardiology department can see her patients' records but not those of patients in the oncology department, even though both departments share the same Salesforce org.
Why Compliant Data Sharing exists for the rules normal sharing can't express
Salesforce's standard sharing model - role hierarchy, OWD, sharing rules, manual sharing - works for the vast majority of orgs. It struggles when the access rules come from a regulator. HIPAA's minimum-necessary principle, FINRA's information-barrier rules, and GDPR's purpose-limitation principle don't map cleanly onto "users in role X see records owned by role Y." Compliant Data Sharing is the layer Salesforce built for those cases.
It runs alongside the standard sharing engine and lets administrators define record-level access in terms regulators understand: who can see this record, for what reason, for how long, under what circumstance. The trade-off is complexity - Compliant Data Sharing rules are harder to author, harder to debug, and harder to explain than a regular sharing rule. The right time to reach for it is when an auditor would not accept "we set the OWD to Private and added a sharing rule" as the answer; the wrong time is whenever a sharing rule will do.
How to set up Compliant Data Sharing
Compliant Data Sharing (CDS) is the granular record-level access control feature for regulated industries — Financial Services Cloud, Health Cloud, Public Sector. It supplements the standard Salesforce sharing model with per-record participant roles and access-rule policies that align with HIPAA / FINRA / GDPR requirements.
- Confirm Compliant Data Sharing is licensed
Setup → Compliant Data Sharing. Available in Industries Clouds (FSC, Health Cloud, Public Sector) — not standard Sales/Service Cloud.
- Open Setup → Compliant Data Sharing
Setup gear → Quick Find: Compliant Data Sharing → Compliant Data Sharing.
- Tick Enable Compliant Data Sharing for the relevant objects
Per-object enablement. Each object (Account, custom object) gets CDS independently.
- Configure Participant Roles per object
Roles are like Account Team Roles but for compliance — "Treating Physician," "Compliance Reviewer." Each Role defines what access (Read / Edit) they get on the parent record.
- Configure Access Rules per Role
What permissions each role inherits at record level. Granular: read certain fields, edit others, see related Cases or not.
- Add Participants to records
On each record, add users with their Participant Roles. Access is granted dynamically based on the Role definition.
- Save and audit
Compliant Data Sharing leaves an audit trail of access grants — required for HIPAA / FINRA reviews.
Each object opts in independently.
Per-object role definitions (like Account Team Roles, but compliance-focused).
Granular field/related-list access.
Built-in logging of access grants and changes.
- Compliant Data Sharing is licensed separately in Industries Clouds. Standard Sharing Rules / Account Teams aren't a substitute — CDS provides finer-grained record-level access tied to participant roles.
- CDS supplements but doesn't replace Org-Wide Defaults. The OWD floor still applies — CDS extends access on top, can't restrict below OWD.
- Audit trail is built in but limited to CDS actions. For broader compliance audits (file access, login patterns), pair with Event Monitoring.
How organizations use Compliant Data Sharing
FINRA information-barrier rules expressed via Compliant Data Sharing; auditors accept the configuration as evidence.
HIPAA minimum-necessary access patterns enforced; broad sharing rules don't accidentally expose PHI.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Compliant Data Sharing.
- Compliant Data Sharing for Financial ServicesSalesforce Help
- Compliant Data SharingSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
Q1. In which area of Salesforce would you typically find Compliant Data Sharing?
Q2. What is the primary benefit of Compliant Data Sharing for Salesforce administrators?
Q3. Can a Salesforce admin configure Compliant Data Sharing without writing code?
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