GDPR Data Mapping Template: Essential Practices and Compliance Strategies

GDPR Data Mapping is the process of indexing and recording how your business collects data, stores data, and uses it internally and on external channels. it gives organizations a clear picture of their data, enabling them to identify and mitigate risks, such as data breaches, unauthorized access, and data loss.

A data map essentially is a road map of a data subject’s data through your internal systems until it is transferred to an external unit.

Data mapping for GDPR, when executed correctly, helps the organization monitor their internal processes and create a security-first environment to protect user data by identifying areas of improvement and eliminating processes and systems that are vulnerable… In addition, this activity reinforces the security posture while unmasking future vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach.

A valid data map of how they process personal data must be presented for any business to comply with Article 30 and Article 36 of GDPR.

How to Conduct Data Mapping GDPR for Privacy Compliance

The Data mapping GDPR exercise is thorough and can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run when done right on the first attempt. 

A good GDPR data map is generally put into effect in seven stages:

Follow the data

As the entity in charge of ensuring effective GDPR certification for your business, you must know where your company collects data. Once it reaches your business environment, the next step is to realize its natural path.

Identify all the teams that have access to the said data and define how that data is being used across the company.

A good reference check at this stage would be to double-check if your business is using that data for the intended purpose as declared in your privacy policy, or is that data getting reused elsewhere too?