README

Overview

Implements GDPR art. 15 (right of access) — and, since the output is structured, doubles as art. 20 (data portability) — for a Laravel application. Given a subject identifier, the package collects every record that any registered Eloquent model holds about that subject and renders it in JSON or Markdown. The action is strictly read-only: nothing is modified, deleted, or anonymized.

Every access is itself a verwerking, so each export writes one row per matched model to a dedicated, append-only subject_access_log hash chain built on the shared HashChain from ginkelsoft/laravel-compliance-core. The log stores only the irreversible subject hash, the source model class, a record count and the format — never the exported data, never the subject identifier.

This is the subject access member of the GinkelSoft compliance family.

The family

Package	GDPR Article(s)	Role
`laravel-compliance-core`	art. 5(2)	Shared primitives
`laravel-data-retention`	art. 5(1)(e)	Storage limitation
`laravel-data-right-to-be-forgotten`	art. 17	Subject-driven erasure
`laravel-data-subject-access`	art. 15 + 20	Subject access — this package
`laravel-data-consent`	art. 6(1)(a) + 7	Consent registry
`laravel-data-breach-registry`	art. 33 + 34	Breach registry
`laravel-compliance-hub`	art. 5(2)	Umbrella

How it works

1. Declare which fields are exportable

Mirror of the other family patterns: an attribute for the subject column, a property for the explicit list of fields. Models implement Ginkelsoft\DataSubjectAccess\Contracts\Exportable and use the matching trait.

The field list is opt-in per field: auto-including every column is unsafe (internal flags, technical foreign keys, hashed values) so this package refuses to do it.

use Ginkelsoft\DataSubjectAccess\Attributes\Exportable;
use Ginkelsoft\DataSubjectAccess\Concerns\Exportable as ExportableTrait;
use Ginkelsoft\DataSubjectAccess\Contracts\Exportable as ExportableContract;

#[Exportable(column: 'id')]
class User extends Model implements ExportableContract
{
    use ExportableTrait;

    protected array $exportable = [
        'fields' => [
            'id'    => 'Subject identifier',
            'email' => 'E-mailadres',
        ],
    ];
}

class Profile extends Model implements ExportableContract
{
    use ExportableTrait;

    protected array $exportable = [
        'column' => 'user_id',
        'fields' => [
            'first_name'    => 'Voornaam',
            'last_name'     => 'Achternaam',
            'email'         => ['label' => 'E-mailadres'],
            'logged_in_at'  => [
                'label'     => 'Aangemeld op',
                'transform' => fn ($v) => $v?->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
            ],
            // internal_note is intentionally not listed: it stays out of the export.
        ],
    ];
}

2. Register the models

// config/subject-access.php
return [
    'models' => [
        \App\Models\User::class,
        \App\Models\Profile::class,
    ],
    'include_soft_deleted' => true,
];

3. Run the export

php artisan retention:export 01HXYZ
php artisan retention:export 01HXYZ --format=markdown
php artisan retention:export 01HXYZ --format=json --output=storage/exports/01HXYZ.json

The command name keeps the retention: prefix for BC with the v1.x monolithic package. Without --output the export is written to STDOUT, so it can be piped or captured. With --output it lands in the given file (missing intermediate directories are created). Two formats ship by default; the Ginkelsoft\DataSubjectAccess\Contracts\Exporter interface lets you add more (HTML, CSV, PDF) without touching the rest of the package.

4. Verify the access chain

use Ginkelsoft\ComplianceCore\Config\LogSecret;
use Ginkelsoft\ComplianceCore\Support\HashChain;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

$entries = DB::table('subject_access_log')->orderBy('id')->get()
    ->map(fn ($row) => (array) $row)->all();

$intact = HashChain::verify($entries, LogSecret::value());

Or run php artisan compliance:verify from the hub to verify every chain in the family in one shot.

What the log stores

Column	Meaning
`subject_hash`	SHA-256 of subject id + secret — irreversible
`model_type`	FQCN of the matched model
`record_count`	Number of records found for this model
`format`	The exporter format used (`json`, `markdown`, ...)
`performed_at`	UTC timestamp
`previous_hash` / `hash`	Hash chain bookkeeping

No subject identifier, no field values.

Compliance notes

GDPR art. 15 — Right of access. Produces a structured snapshot of every Exportable record per subject.
GDPR art. 20 — Data portability. The JSON format is machine-readable and reusable by the subject.
GDPR art. 5(2) — Accountability. The subject_access_log hash chain proves the access happened, when, by which format, and over which models.

This package is not legal advice. Identity verification (is this requester actually the subject?) is your application's responsibility.

Installation

composer require ginkelsoft/laravel-data-subject-access
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=compliance-config
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=subject-access-config
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=subject-access-migrations
php artisan migrate

Then add a secret to .env (shared with the rest of the family):

COMPLIANCE_LOG_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)"

Gotchas

Identity verification is your problem. This package does not check whether the requester is actually the subject. Running retention:export against an unverified identifier is a data breach waiting to happen — do a verified email round-trip, an authenticated session, or a manual KYC step before invoking the command.
The export is a snapshot. Records created or modified after the export are obviously not in it. If the subject asks for a fresh export tomorrow, run it again — accountability comes from the per-call log row.
Trait conflict with right-to-be-forgotten. A model that carries both Exportable (this package) and Forgettable (laravel-data-right-to-be-forgotten) must resolve the forSubjectQuery conflict explicitly:
```
use Ginkelsoft\DataRightToBeForgotten\Concerns\Forgettable;
use Ginkelsoft\DataSubjectAccess\Concerns\Exportable;
class User extends Model implements ExportableContract, ForgettableContract
{
    use Exportable, Forgettable {
        Forgettable::forSubjectQuery insteadof Exportable;
    }
}
```
When both policies use the same subject column (the common case), either insteadof picks works. When the columns differ, override forSubjectQuery on the model directly instead.
PDF is intentionally not built-in. Adding a PDF generator would pull in a heavy dependency for what is essentially an Exporter contract that you can implement in a project-specific way (Dompdf, mPDF, Browsershot). JSON and Markdown cover the common cases.
Migrated from v1.x? In the monolithic laravel-data-retention v1.x package, subject-access logged into retention_log with a sentinel subject_access field. This package writes to its own subject_access_log table instead, which means existing retention_log rows from before the upgrade stay verifiable in place (the retention package still owns that chain) and new access actions start a fresh chain in the new table. No data migration needed; see UPGRADE.md.

Testing

composer install
vendor/bin/pest
vendor/bin/phpstan analyse --memory-limit=1G
vendor/bin/pint --test

Reporting bugs

Found a bug or unexpected behaviour? We want to hear about it.

Preferred — open a GitHub issue: https://github.com/ginkelsoft-development/laravel-data-subject-access/issues/new

When opening an issue, please include:

Versions — PHP, Laravel, and the package version (composer show ginkelsoft/laravel-data-subject-access).
What you did — the artisan command, code snippet, or steps that triggered the bug.
What you expected vs what actually happened — include full error output or a stack trace if there is one.
A minimal reproduction if you can — a failing test or a small code sample beats a long description.

Security-sensitive findings (anything that could expose personal data, break a hash-chain, or bypass an audit log) — please do not open a public issue. E-mail info@ginkelsoft.com directly with "SECURITY" in the subject line and we will respond privately.

Not on GitHub? You can also e-mail info@ginkelsoft.com with the same information.

Contact

For commercial support, integration questions, or anything that doesn't fit a GitHub issue: info@ginkelsoft.com — https://ginkelsoft.com.

ginkelsoft / laravel-data-subject-access

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