Are you stuck in the “No-Brain Data Discovery” tools trap?
If your “data discovery” is an Excel chase send sheet, collect inputs, merge tabs then understand this plainly:
You have an inventory. Not accountability.
And under DPDPA, inventory won’t survive the first grievance or incident.
If discovery doesn’t produce evidence, it produces liability.
The one test that ends the debate
A Data Principal asks:
“What data of mine do you have, why do you still have it, who accessed it, and when will you delete it?”
If your answer is “we’ll check and revert”, you are not “in progress”.
You are non-defensible.
DPDPA compliance is not a policy posture. It is traceability on demand.
What “mechanical discovery” always misses
Mechanical discovery maps systems. Real discovery maps reality.
Reality lives in:
- exports (CSV/Excel)
- shared drives
- inbox attachments
- tickets and call recordings
- WhatsApp screenshots
- vendor folders
- analytics tags
- tools that “temporarily” touched production data
This is where personal data spreads, stays, and becomes uncontrollable.
Most DPDPA failures won’t be in your core systems. They’ll be in your leftovers.
If the truth takes a week to assemble, it isn’t governed.
Tools are only to assist, but before that what we emphasise in Vibe Data Privacy is :
KYD – Know your Data
KYP – Know Your Purpose
KYP – Know Your Process
KYPP- Know Your Privacy Policy
Don’t be in a mechanical trap of tools alone otherwise you will not be in the real bus of “Data Governance, Data Lineage and Data Provenance”.
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