# Role-based access control (RBAC) · Glossary
An access model in which permissions are granted to roles, such as claims handler or finance analyst, and people receive access by being assigned to those roles.
[Glossary](/glossary) · Data privacy and security

# Role-based access control (RBAC)

     An access model in which permissions are granted to roles, such as claims handler or finance analyst, and people receive access by being assigned to those roles. It makes access easier to review, grant and revoke than managing permissions person by person.

## Why it matters

     As data platforms and AI tools spread, the number of people and services with access grows quickly. RBAC keeps that manageable and supports least privilege, joiner-mover-leaver processes and access reviews that auditors expect.

     AI systems must respect the same permissions as the people using them. An assistant that retrieves documents or queries data should act within the requesting user’s role, not with a broad service account that can see everything.

## In practice

     For example, a UK wealth manager might define separate roles for advisers, compliance reviewers and operations staff. Its internal research assistant then applies those roles at retrieval time, so an adviser only sees their own clients’ documents while compliance can search across the book.

## Where Rodan fits

     Rodan implements role-based access across data platforms and AI tools as part of [Platform and Cloud Engineering](https://rodan.io/platform-cloud-engineering), with permissions enforced at the data layer rather than only in the interface.

## Related terms

- [Zero trust](/glossary#zero-trust)

- [Data classification](/glossary/data-classification)

- [Encryption](/glossary#encryption)

- [Audit trail](/glossary/audit-trail)

- [Embedded analytics](/glossary/embedded-analytics)

- [Text-to-SQL](/glossary/text-to-sql)
HTML: https://rodan.io/glossary/role-based-access-control