FINRA Compliance for Google Workspace: Google Drive and Calendar Updates

What’s changing 

Today, we announced Google Workspace support for FINRA compliance, continuing our commitment to meet the unique needs of heavily regulated industry. This includes the preservation of records in a non-rewritable, non-erasable (WORM) format, including support for SEC Rule 17a-4, SEC Rule 18a-6, and CFTC §1.31. 

We’re pleased to announce FINRA-compliant solutions for Google Drive and Calendar (complementing our existing FINRA-compliant features for Gmail, Chat, and Meet) that address the critical supervisory, documentation, and surveillance requirements that underpin financial regulations: 

For Google Drive, super admins can now use Google Workspace’s Data Export tool and AODocs to create a FINRA-compliant archive of their Google Drive data in a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket. This data can be from specific organizational units (OUs), groups, or users, and filtered by Drive labels.

When you’re using the Data Export tool, select “FINRA” as your export type

For Calendar, super admins and admins with third-party archiving privileges can enable third-party archiving on an OU or group level and specify the email address to which Calendar archives should be sent. The following events will be captured: 
  • On the monitored user’s calendar: all events and their updates, including events modified by another user with the appropriate access to the monitored user's calendar 
  • On other calendars that the monitored user can make changes to: all actions performed by the monitored user 
When these actions are performed, an email is sent to the journaling address specified by the admin with the event data, user who performed the action, and time stamp. providing access via SMTP for a third-party service provider to archive and produce the records on demand.
Third-party archiving can be enabled in the Admin console by going to Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for Calendar > Third-party Archiving Settings

Who’s impacted 

Admins 

Why it’s important 

These updates are critical for Google Workspace customers operating in the financial services industry on a global scale. For Calendar, archival journaling functionality supports compliance news by ensuring electronic communications are captured and preserved, meeting essential record-keeping standards. For Drive, admins can manage and securely store critical documents at scale. These solutions add to our existing FINRA-compliant features for Gmail, Chat, and Meet (when certain settings are enabled and disabled), providing global communication solutions and cutting edge productivity tools that meet the regulatory needs of customers in the financial services sector. 

Additionally, we are proud to announce partnerships with several industry-leading Digital Communications Governance and Archiving (DCGA) vendors: AODocs, Mimecast, Smarsh, and Global Relay. These partners provide vital connectors for our customers, ensuring the compliant flow of Google Workspace data into their trusted archiving solutions. For more information on these partnerships and FINRA compliance for Google Workspace, visit the Workspace blog.

Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 


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