DPDP Act (DPDPA) Compliance Checklist

Use this checklist to get a fast, honest read on where your organization actually stands against India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. It's built from the same control set our DPDP Act compliance program maps to — not a generic privacy checklist repurposed for India.

Governance & Accountability

• Appointed a Data Protection Officer (mandatory for Significant Data Fiduciaries, India-based)
• Designated an independent data auditor for periodic assessments
• Documented a personal data processing register — what you collect, why, and where it's stored
• Completed a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for high-risk processing activities
• Assigned clear internal ownership for DPDP Act compliance (not "everyone's job")

Consent & Notice

• Consent requests are specific, itemized, and not bundled into a blanket "accept all"
• Consent can be withdrawn as easily as it was given
• Notices are available in clear language, not buried in a general privacy policy
• A Consent Manager framework is in place if you operate as one or rely on one
• Children's data (under 18) is processed only with verifiable parental consent

Technical & Organizational Safeguards

• Personal data is encrypted at rest and in transit
• Identity-centric access controls are enforced — RBAC, MFA, least privilege
• Network segmentation and intrusion detection are in place around systems holding personal data
• Vulnerability assessments and penetration tests run on a continuous, not annual, cadence
• Third-party vendors with data access have been risk-assessed (see our Vendor Risk Checklist)

Breach Detection & Notification

• A documented breach response plan exists, with named owners and escalation paths
• Monitoring is continuous enough to detect a breach in hours, not months
• A process exists to notify the Data Protection Board of India and affected individuals without delay
• Breach notification timelines are rehearsed, not just written down

Cross-Border Transfers & Data Fiduciary Obligations

• Cross-border data transfer mechanisms comply with Section 16 requirements
• Significant Data Fiduciary thresholds have been assessed against your user base and data volume
• Data retention and deletion schedules are defined and enforced, not indefinite by default

Where Alastor InfoSec Fits

Alastor Shield automates evidence collection against this exact checklist — DPIA workflows, consent audit trails, and breach-readiness documentation, continuously kept current instead of assembled once a year before an audit. Alastor Pulse and Dark Web Monitoring close the detection gap that trips up most breach notification timelines.

Talk to our team for a free DPDP Act (DPDPA) readiness assessment scored against this checklist.