Data discovery is always going to play an important role regardless of the industry you may choose to venture in. This process entails discovering, cataloging, and classifying information in different systems. The main aim of data discovery is to have a clear understanding of the kind of data being stored and processed. It is then that businesses can derive value from it.
When it comes to the world of compliance and personal data processing, data discovery is vital to understanding and detecting all data processing activities. For you to get the most from this process, you ought to understand what data your organization is processing and why. Otherwise, you risk missing out on a host of benefits that would take your business to a whole new world.
For you to discover as many details as possible regarding the data processing, you ought to ensure the entire process involves most of your employees. But how can you pull this off successfully? Well, the best way to go about this is creating and distributing privacy impact assessment surveys.
How do you process the data? What is the purpose of personal data processing? These are just but some of the questions you need to get answers for when conducting a survey. Once the survey is distributed, essential information will start populating the data processing inventory. This in turn makes it easy for you to carry out further automation of the privacy initiatives thus giving stakeholders the information they need.
You ought to keep in mind the output of data discovery is a repository of data categories, data domains, and technical coordinates of the data. For this reason, you need to ensure they’re linked with the data processing inventory. Through this action, you stand the chance of determining any processing that is yet to be processed.
The Bottom line
It is quite evident that data discovery has an important role to play when it comes to compliance.  However, you need to understand what the entire process entails if you’re to stand the chance of reaping maximum benefits.