Your service accounts are probably breaking GDPR right now.
Service accounts are everywhere. They run automated processes. They connect systems. They pull data day and night without asking for permission. But in most companies, no one really knows who owns them, what data they touch, or how long they keep it. That’s a GDPR nightmare.
GDPR is clear about data access and retention: every account that can reach personal data must be identifiable, auditable, and controlled. Service accounts are no exception. The problem is that they often skip the usual onboarding and offboarding checks. They might use shared credentials. They might stay active for years after their purpose has ended. All of this creates risk.
When GDPR auditors show up, they want proof:
- Who owns each service account
- What personal data it can access
- When it last touched that data
- When it will stop having that access
Without a system, that proof is almost impossible to provide. Spreadsheets fail. Manual audits miss old accounts. Logs are incomplete. Every gap is a potential violation.
A GDPR-compliant approach to service accounts starts with visibility. Create a full inventory of every non-human account. Link each to an owner. Track its permissions in real time. Enforce expiration dates. Remove access as soon as it’s no longer needed. Keep immutable records that show exactly who approved what.
The second step is automation. Manual governance does not scale. Continuous checks for inactive accounts, excessive permissions, and expired credentials keep the system clean. Alerts bring attention to risks before they become incidents. Reports are always available to pass an audit at any time.
The final step is standardization. Make your process the same across all teams and tools. Every service account request should follow one path. Every retirement should be confirmed and logged. This eliminates the shadow accounts that slip through gaps in process.
The result is control. GDPR service account compliance stops being a scramble before audits. It becomes a living, always-current state you can prove any day of the year.
You can piece this together with internal tools and policies—or you can see it working live in minutes with hoop.dev. Eliminating blind spots in service account governance is faster than you think.