Over the past few years, as ALTR has continued to grow and innovate, our product team has stayed closely connected to our customers, regularly gathering feedback to understand their evolving needs. One recurring theme that emerged in conversations was around policy setup—specifically, how customers experienced it within the platform. While they appreciated the power and effectiveness of ALTR’s policy engine, many shared that the terminology and workflows sometimes made it challenging to get started or to manage policies as their security requirements matured and their data complexity grew.  

Terminology such as “locks,” “thresholds,” and “anomalies”—while meaningful within ALTR—weren’t always intuitive for new users. The logic behind policy setup wasn’t immediately apparent either, especially for new users. Some aspects were spread across different sections of the platform: row access policies were managed under one tab, while tag policies were embedded within column-level settings, and some users didn’t discover them until deeper into the workflow. This was also the case with thresholds and alerts being configured completely separately from the policy they are linked to. It required some exploration—and a bit of institutional knowledge—to piece it all together. 

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Customers also expressed a desire for more control and flexibility in how they build policies. They didn’t necessarily want to configure everything in one go; instead, they wanted the ability to build policies step by step, at their own pace, and with better context at each stage. 

Introducing Unified Access Policy (UAP) 

With that feedback in hand, our product team went back to the drawing board and created something new: Unified Access Policy (UAP). Launched in February, UAP is a reimagined way to define and manage access controls across tags, columns, and rows—all within a single, intuitive experience. 

Here’s how UAP changes the game for data access policy setup: 

A Simpler Starting Point 

Onboarding with ALTR is now more streamlined. UAP offers a consolidated, guided interface that makes it immediately clear where and how to create your first policy. Whether you’re a first-time user or an experienced admin, you no longer have to navigate through multiple pages or decipher unfamiliar terminology to get started. 

Rule Statements That Read Like Plain English 

Instead of filling out a series of disconnected form fields, UAP introduces rule speak—complete sentences that walk you through the process of creating a policy. This guided experience brings clarity to each decision point and reduces the cognitive load of understanding how one field relates to another. 

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Alerts Built Into Policy Creation 

Previously, alerting and policy creation lived in separate parts of the product. Now, they’re unified. As part of setting up a policy, you can configure alerts right within the same workflow—no need to toggle between features. And like the rule statements, alerts are also defined through clear, sentence-based inputs that make the process intuitive. 

A Centralized Policy Hub 

Once policies are created, you can view and manage them in a centralized hub, irrespective of the data source they are created for. This new layout surfaces key information at the highest level immediately, so you can quickly understand what’s been configured and where. You don’t have to dig for critical details—they’re right where you need them. 

Deeper Visibility, On Demand 

Want to dive deeper into a specific policy? Just expand it directly within the table. UAP supports multi-row expansion, so you can view multiple policies side by side without losing your place. Whether you’re comparing configurations or auditing your access setup, you can do so without opening and closing separate windows or “drawers.” 

Empowering Users, One Policy at a Time 

UAP reflects our commitment to making powerful security more accessible. It was built directly from customer insights and designed to balance clarity with control, scalability with simplicity. Whether you’re locking down sensitive data, setting thresholds for anomalous behavior, or tagging columns for fine-grained access, UAP helps you do it more efficiently—and with far greater visibility. 

This is just the beginning. We’re continuing to iterate, expand, and listen—so that ALTR not only secures your data, but makes it easier than ever to control how, when, and by whom it’s accessed. 

Want to see UAP in action? Schedule a demo or reach out to your ALTR team to learn more.