India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) is one of the most significant regulatory developments in Asia’s privacy landscape. After years of discussion, the Act received presidential assent in 2023 and is awaiting full operationalization, pending the finalization of rules and phased notifications. With potential penalties reaching INR 250 crore per violation (approximately 30 million USD), the DPDP Act signals a strong shift toward accountability, transparency, and responsible personal data handling.
But compliance is not simply about legal text. The primary challenge for most organizations lies in operationalizing the DPDP principles in environments where data constantly moves across apps, clouds, endpoints, and third-party ecosystems.
This blog outlines the practical implications of the DPDP Act, what organizations (Data Fiduciaries or Data Processors) should expect as enforcement approaches, and the importance of data-centric security for regulatory compliance.
Understanding the DPDP Act – A Modern Approach to Digital Privacy
Although rooted in global privacy models, the act reflects India’s unique intent: balance in an individual’s (Data Principal’s) right to privacy with the nation’s need for digital innovation and the practical realities of a fast-growing data economy.
DPDP establishes:
- Lawful and transparent processing of personal data
- Clear consent practices
- Purpose-limited collection
- Requirements for accuracy, retention, and deletion
- Safeguards to secure personal data throughout its lifecycle
- Accountability for breaches, misuse, and non-compliance
Once enforcement begins, companies operating in India or processing data of individuals located in India will be expected to demonstrate policy-level compliance and operational discipline in how data is collected, processed, shared, secured, and stored.
This is where the gap begins to widen.
Why DPDP Compliance Is More Challenging Than It Appears
Organizations often feel confident about compliance because they have policies, consent forms, or high-level governance structures in place. Similar to global privacy laws like GDPR, DPDP expects organizations to demonstrate compliance through documented controls and verifiable practices, becoming an evidence-driven regulation. Demonstrating compliance requires evidence: documented controls, consistent enforcement, and the ability to track how personal data is used over time.
Today, it is extremely burdensome because:
- Personal data exists far beyond formal systems
Even with strong IT governance, personal data ends up in Excel files, desktop folders, email attachments, chat exports, SaaS downloads, and ad-hoc reports. This shadow data poses an enormous risk.
- Cloud and SaaS usage increases data duplication
Cloud platforms automatically generate multiple versions of your data, often without you realizing it. Without visibility, organizations cannot verify how personal data flows or who interacts with it.
- Third parties create unavoidable exposure
Vendors, partners, contractors, and service providers routinely receive, process, or store personal data. DPDP expects organizations to implement reasonable safeguards and ensure that third parties handling personal data follow comparable protection standards.
- Traditional security tools cannot follow the data
Network controls, endpoint security, and DLP protect environments, not the data itself. Once personal data leaves the system (downloaded, forwarded, printed), protection often disappears.
In short, the DPDP Act isn’t difficult because of its text. It’s difficult because data no longer stays where organizations expect it to be.
Why Data-Centric Security is Critical for DPDP Compliance
DPDP is fundamentally about protecting sensitive information – not the devices, servers, networks, or apps around that information. That’s why organizations across India and related countries are moving to data-centric security, a model where protection is applied directly to the data itself.
With a data-centric approach:
- Protection travels with the file
- Access is controlled dynamically and persistently
- Encryption remains active regardless of location
- All document usage (view, edit, print, screenshot, and decrypt) is monitored
- Rights can be revoked even after distribution
- Third-party environments do not weaken protection
This closes the gap between “policy compliance” and “actual compliance”, especially in hybrid environments where personal data constantly travels outside corporate borders.
How Fasoo Data Security Platform Helps Organizations Meet DPDP Expectations
Fasoo provides Data Security Platform that is purpose-built for lifecycle control of sensitive unstructured data. This aligns directly with DPDP requirements for strong safeguards, accountable usage, and transparent governance.
Here’s how Fasoo strengthens DPDP compliance across the full data lifecycle, without depending on the underlying system or environment.
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Discover and classify personal data everywhere it lives
DPDP compliance begins with knowing where personal data resides. Fasoo Data Radar and Fasoo DSPM enable complete visibility across the environments – endpoints, shared folders, cloud repositories, and SaaS applications. By automatically scanning and identifying files that contain personal or regulated information, Fasoo helps organizations build an accurate data inventory and classify data based on content and context. This ensures companies understand what personal data they hold, where it is stored, and who can access it – forming the foundation for lawful and purpose-limited data processing.
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Apply persistent, file-level protection that follows the data
Fasoo Enterprise DRM automatically encrypts and applies protection at the file level. This persistent protection ensures that personal data remains secured no matter where it travels – downloaded to a laptop, emailed to a colleague, synced through a cloud service, or shared with an external partner. Access is controlled dynamically based on pre-defined policies, so only authorized users can open or interact with the file. Even when shared externally, permissions such as view, edit, download, print, and screen capture can continue to be controlled. This protects personal data across its full lifecycle, addressing DPDP’s requirement for strong and continuous security safeguards.
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Strengthen endpoint security for screens and printouts
A significant portion of risk under DPDP comes from uncontrolled actions at the endpoints: screenshots, local copies, and printed documents. Fasoo provides protection and visibility to these high-risk activities even on screens and printouts. Fasoo Smart Screen can block screen capture and implement a dynamic screen watermark to ensure sensitive information is not leaked through screen capture tools or photo taking from mobiles. Fasoo Smart Print records exactly what was printed by whom and applies watermarks or restricts printing for files containing personal data. These capabilities close key blind spots that traditional DLP or OS-level features miss, helping organizations prevent, trace, and control personal data leakage at every means of usage.
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Maintain Full Audit Trails
DPDP places a high emphasis on accountability, breach reporting, and demonstrable compliance. Fasoo supports this by generating detailed logs of how personal data is handled: every open, edit, print, screenshot, or decrypt is recorded. These audit trails provide clear visibility into the history of each file, regardless of where it has traveled or which user accessed it. Fasoo Integrated Log Manager integrates logs from various security solutions to enable comprehensive monitoring and analysis of all security-related events. This enables faster investigations, stronger internal governance, and the ability to demonstrate compliance to regulators.
Compliance Requires Control that Follows the Data
India’s DPDP Act raises expectations for how organizations protect personal information in a digitally connected world. But meeting these expectations requires more than policies, consent forms, and perimeter security. It requires knowing where personal data is, ensuring it remains protected everywhere it travels, and maintaining visibility and accountability across its entire lifecycle.
Fasoo Data Security Platform, with a breadth of solutions, delivers the persistent, data-centric approach organizations need to achieve operational DPDP compliance. Request a demo to explore how Fasoo helps organizations comply with India’s DPDP Act.