Short answer: Data mapping gives you a clear overview of where personal data is stored across your organisation – in systems, files, and emails. It helps identify risks, strengthen GDPR compliance, and ensure you’re only keeping data that is relevant and necessary. In short, data mapping is a powerful tool for both data security and operational efficiency.
What is data mapping?
Data mapping creates an overview of your company’s data, and makes it possible to discover duplicate data, valuable documents, potential security problems, etc. By having an insight into your data, you enable yourself to act on the basis of data. In connection with GDPR, data mapping can also identify sensitive personal data as well as vulnerabilities in the way you handle sensitive data.
This blog is about what data mapping is and how you as a company can benefit from it.
Why is data mapping interesting?
Data mapping is the process of organising, classifying, analysing and understanding the data – structured as well as unstructured – that your company stores across data systems. It shows you what information your company has, how data flows in the company, who has access to data and where it is stored.
Specifically, data mapping typically takes place by following a series of steps, including:
- Mapping: First you get an overview of your data in the data systems you use; local drives, shared drives, CRM system, mail, services, etc.
- Categorisation: The data is then categorised and organised by type, purpose and use.
- Data analysis: The data is then analysed to identify patterns, dependencies and correlations.
- Visualisation: The data is then visualised in the form of a diagram, map or other form of graphical representation, so that you can see how the data interact with each other.
- Optimisation: Finally, the results of the data mapping are evaluated with a view to optimising data handling.
Through this process, you can gain a better understanding of how data is used in your company.
How can data mapping help our company?
Data mapping can help a business in several ways, including:
- Support data security: Data mapping gives companies insight into where their data is most vulnerable, so they can strengthen security measures and protect themselves against data breaches and cyber attacks.
- Support data management: By identifying outdated or unnecessary data, companies can streamline their data storage and processing.
- Support decision-making: With a clear understanding of data flows and structures, companies can make better decisions based on accurate data, which can be used to improve everything from strategic planning to operations.
- Support data analysis: A detailed mapping of data types and structures makes it easier to perform in-depth data analysis, which can reveal insights that can drive business growth.
- Support compliance: By mapping where personal data is stored and used, companies can ensure that they comply with GDPR and other data legislation. This reduces the risk of fines and consequences in the event of a data breach.
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Data mapping to avoid data breaches
Data mapping can help protect data by providing a detailed overview of the company’s data and how it is used. This makes it possible to identify vulnerable areas in a company’s data management, so that it is easier to protect personal data. You can generally say that data mapping can be used to protect data as follows:
- Identification: By visualising the organisation’s data, you can identify where personal information is stored and how it interacts with other data. This allows measures to be taken to protect them from potential threats.
- Access control: Data mapping makes it possible to see who has access to which data and to control access to personally sensitive information.
- Compliance: Data mapping helps ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR by showing how the organisation handles personal information.
- Vulnerabilities: Data mapping can help detect vulnerabilities in data handling before they are exploited by cybercriminals.
FAQ on data mapping
1. What is data mapping?
Data mapping is the process of identifying, mapping, and documenting where personal data is stored within your systems – such as in emails, files, cloud storage, and databases.
2. Why is data mapping important?
It provides an overview of what data you have, where it resides, and how it’s used. It’s essential for GDPR compliance and helps ensure you’re not storing data unnecessarily or insecurely.
3. What’s the difference between data mapping and data structure?
Data structure refers to how data is technically organised. Data mapping focuses on the content – specifically, what types of personal data you hold and where they are located.
4. When should data mapping be done?
It should be part of your ongoing GDPR efforts – not a one-off task. It’s especially important to update your mapping when changing systems, onboarding new processors, or modifying workflows.
5. How can data mapping be automated?
Data discovery tools can automatically scan your systems for personal data, identify risks, and provide a clear, user-friendly overview – all without heavy manual effort.
What is the future of data mapping?
Data mapping tools that use artificial intelligence are one of the latest developments in data mapping technology. These tools use advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to automate and improve the process of data mapping.
With artificial intelligence, data mapping tools can enable companies to discover, map and monitor their data flows much more efficiently. This means that the tool can identify any vulnerabilities in the company’s data collection, processing and storage before they become a problem.
Another advantage of using artificial intelligence in data mapping is that the tool can learn and improve itself over time. This means that the tool can become better at identifying and protecting against vulnerabilities and cyber threats as the business grows and develops.
Start your privacy cleanup with the big picture
A GDPR Risk report gives you a complete overview of the privacy risk in your company. The report is based on a scan with DataMapper.
Get started with data mapping in your company
A company can use data mapping to manage and protect data. In addition, data mapping can be used to get an overview of your data with sensitive content in order to handle personal data properly and comply with the GDPR. Finally, data mapping can help companies to streamline data and strengthen their decision-making basis on the basis of data.
At Safe Online, we have developed a data mapping tool that uses artificial intelligence to locate personally sensitive information in files, emails and images. What used to take days, weeks or months can now be done in a fraction of the time. And at the same time, you avoid the risk of mistakes being made in the process.
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Sebastian Allerelli
Founder & COO at Safe Online
Sebastian is the co-founder and COO of Safe Online, where he focuses on automating processes and developing innovative solutions within data protection and compliance. With a background from Copenhagen Business Academy and experience within identity and access management, he has a keen understanding of GDPR and data security. As a writer on Safe Online's Knowledge Hub, Sebastian shares his expertise through practical advice and in-depth analysis that help companies navigate the complex GDPR landscape. His posts combine technical insight with business understanding and provide concrete solutions for effective compliance.
