What ensures users can only access specific rows within a table?

Row Level Security (RLA) is a feature that allows for fine-grained access control to data within a table, ensuring that users can only access certain rows based on their roles or permissions. This mechanism works by defining security policies that determine which rows a particular user or group of users can view or modify.

The primary advantage of RLA is that it provides a way to enforce security requirements at the data level, rather than relying solely on broader permissions applied to entire tables. This targeted approach is especially beneficial in environments where sensitive information must be restricted to specific users, such as in multi-tenant applications or organizations that handle various levels of confidentiality in their data.

In contrast, table partitioning organizes data within a table into distinct segments for performance and management purposes, but it does not inherently restrict access based on user identity. Stored procedures can encapsulate business logic and control data manipulation but do not provide row-level security. Field security limits access to specific columns within a table rather than restricting visibility to specific rows.

Through RLA, organizations can effectively control data access, mitigate risks related to data exposure, and ensure compliance with various data protection regulations, making it a powerful tool for managing user access at a granular level.