A global insurer holds policyholder records for customers in Germany, Brazil and Canada. Local regulators forbid moving identifiable records outside each country. The actuarial team still wants a consolidated view of claims trends across all three. What should the data engineer do?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Data residency rules govern where data is stored and processed, so identifiable records must stay in-country. The right design keeps per-country datasets in regions that match each jurisdiction and applies access controls. For the consolidated view, engineers can expose only aggregated, de-identified outputs centrally, or use a federated approach in which the raw records never leave their region. Encryption and access controls do not change where data physically resides, so they cannot replace residency compliance.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. A single multi-region dataset places identifiable records outside the required countries, which breaks the residency rule even if queries run faster. Performance is not a valid reason to override legal location constraints.
- C. Encryption protects confidentiality but does not change where data is stored, so copying records to another region still violates residency rules. Lowest cost is not a compliance criterion.
- D. A shared bucket in another region moves the identifiable records out of their countries. IAM restrictions limit who can read them but do not satisfy the location requirement.