Processing activity tab

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Processing activity tab

    The Processing activity tab on the Privacy management dashboard offers ServiceNow customers a comprehensive, real-time view of all data processing activities within their organization. It is designed to support privacy teams, compliance officers, and data protection professionals in monitoring and managing data privacy obligations efficiently. The dashboard consolidates key metrics and visualizations, enabling proactive decision-making aligned with regulatory requirements.

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    Key Features

    • Processing activities by state: Summarizes processing activities by workflow states including New, Discover, Review, Monitor, and Retire. Each state block shows activity volume and allows direct navigation to filtered activity lists for detailed review.
    • Processing activities by criticality score: Displays active activities segmented by High or Low criticality based on regulatory risk factors, helping prioritize efforts. Criticality scores are automatically determined using configurable automated factors.
    • Processing activities by department: Shows a breakdown of activities by department with filters to view criticality scores, supporting departmental accountability and visibility in privacy management.
    • Least compliant processing activities: Lists activities with the lowest compliance scores, including criticality and residual risk data. Filters help analysts focus on high-risk, low-compliance activities for targeted remediation.
    • Processing activities by data subject type: Categorizes activities by data subject groups such as Employees, Customers, and Job Applicants. Filters can focus on vulnerable data subjects to enhance protective measures.
    • Processing activities by information object category: Classifies data processed by type and sensitivity, enabling teams to identify and safeguard sensitive data effectively.
    • Processing activities by type: Uses a pie chart to show the underlying record type that the processing activity is based on, helping understand the scope across business and technology domains.
    • Processing activities by data processing role: Illustrates roles like Controller and Processor involved in data processing, clarifying responsibility assignments to ensure compliance with legal obligations.

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging this dashboard, ServiceNow customers can gain detailed and customizable insights into their data processing activities. This visibility supports prioritizing privacy risks, increasing compliance, enhancing departmental accountability, and ensuring appropriate safeguarding of data subjects’ information. The intuitive charts, filters, and navigation tools enable privacy and compliance teams to act swiftly and effectively in meeting data protection regulations and organizational policies.

    The Processing activity tab on the Privacy management dashboard provides a comprehensive and real-time overview of all data processing activities across the organization.

    The Processing activity tab on the Privacy management dashboard supports privacy teams, compliance officers, and data protection professionals. This dashboard consolidates key metrics and visualizations to track the status, criticality, compliance levels, and categorization of processing activities.

    By offering intuitive insights through charts, graphs, and filters, the dashboard enables proactive management of data privacy obligations and facilitates informed decision-making in line with regulatory requirements. You can use filters and drop-down lists in the widgets to customize the views based on your preferences.

    This dashboard displays the following widgets.
    Processing activities by state
    This section displays a summary of processing activities categorized by their current workflow states: New, Discover, Review, Monitor, and Retire. Each state block provides a quick overview of volume and enables direct navigation to filtered activity lists.
    Processing activities by criticality score

    The gauge chart displays the total number of active processing activities segmented by criticality score: High and Low. This chart enables stakeholders to prioritize efforts based on regulatory risk classification levels.

    If any criticality factor under Regulatory details is marked Yes and criticality is assessed, the processing activity’s criticality score is set to High. If all factors are answered as No, then the score is Low. The score is determined using the Automated criticality factors RAM and can be configured according to requirements.

    Processing activities by department
    The bar chart displays a breakdown of processing activities across different departments. It enables departmental accountability and visibility into privacy management's distribution. You can also filter by the criticality score to view the criticality score of processing activities across different departments.
    Least compliant processing activities
    This widget highlights activities with the lowest compliance scores in a list view. Each entry shows criticality score and aggregated residual risk. With the filter, the analysts can focus on processing activities having low compliance and high criticality score or low compliance and high aggregated residual risk.
    Processing activities by data subject type
    The bar chart illustrates activities grouped by data subject types such as Employees, Candidates, Customers, Internal Staff, Job Applicants, and so on. It helps in assessing which categories of data subjects are most involved in processing activities and take appropriate measures to safeguard the data of these data subjects. You can apply a filter to focus specifically on vulnerable data subjects.
    Processing activities by information object category
    The bar chart presents classification based on the types of data processed. The categorization supports the identification of data types most involved in processing. It also enables filtering by sensitive Information Object (IO category), helping the privacy team identify data types and implement appropriate measures to safeguard the data.
    Processing activities by type
    The pie chart depicts the underlying record (entity type) based on which the processing activity is created. This categorization helps in determining the scope of privacy initiatives across business functions and technology platforms.
    Processing activities by data processing role
    The pie chart shows the roles undertaken in data processing like Controller and Processor. Clarity about the role played in processing activities is vital for assigning responsibilities and meeting legal requirements.
    The following image shows the Processing activity dashboard.
    Figure 1. Processing activity tab
    Processing activity tab on the privacy management home page.