DIY Compliance
Your Step-by-Step Journey to DPDPA Compliance
Overview
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) introduces a new era of data rights, privacy, and accountability. For many organizations, especially those starting for the first time, the journey can feel overwhelming.
To simplify the process, we’ve created a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Journey — a structured, step-by-step guide that helps you move from understanding to implementation of DPDPA compliance using Open Source SAHAJ.
Problem Statement
DPDPA compliance isn’t just about checking boxes — it’s about creating systems, processes, and cultural changes to protect personal data. Common challenges organizations face include:
- Complexity: Multiple legal, technical, and operational requirements spread across functions.
- Resource Constraints: Not every organization has immediate access to legal experts or privacy engineers.
- Fragmented Knowledge: Guidance is often scattered or overly legalistic, making it difficult for teams to know where to begin.
- Uncertainty: Unsure how to apply DPDPA rules to real-world systems, especially for small and medium businesses.
These challenges can lead to gaps in compliance, exposure to penalties, and loss of user trust.
Why DIY?
We built the DIY Module to address these challenges head-on:
- Clarity: Breaks down DPDPA into understandable tasks you can execute.
- Structure: Follows a step-by-step path to prevent overwhelm.
- Actionable Guidance: Provides templates, checklists, and module explanations for each stage.
- Community Support: Connects you with peers, experts, and open-source contributors to ask questions and share learnings.
By following the DIY approach, you gain a clear roadmap rather than a maze of disconnected requirements.
How DIY Helps
| Challenge | How DIY Module Solves It |
|---|---|
| Unsure where to start | Provides a clearly defined starting point aligned to your organization’s risk profile. |
| Managing multiple tasks | Breaks the journey into manageable milestones with clear deliverables. |
| Understanding technical and legal overlap | Explains technical implementation alongside legal expectations. |
| Staying aligned with best practices | Offers community-driven insights and pre-built templates. |
DIY Journey at a Glance
- Orientation: Understand DPDPA and SAHAJ modules.
- Consent Lifecycle Setup: Implement consent collection, validation, update, renewal, and withdrawal.
- Cookie Consent Management: Configure cookie banners and preference management.
- User Dashboard & Grievance Handling: Enable transparency and user control.
- Notifications & Alerts: Automate communication with Data Principals and Fiduciaries.
- System Administration: Set retention policies, define user roles, secure your system.
- Logging & Audit: Activate immutable audit logs and reporting.
Each step contains:
- Key objectives.
- Implementation guidance.
- Links to SAHAJ modules and community discussions.
Special Note for SDFs (Significant Data Fiduciaries)
If your organization is classified as a Significant Data Fiduciary (SDF) under the DPDPA, additional requirements apply. These steps go beyond the DIY recommendations and require direct legal and compliance advisory. Use the DIY as a baseline, but consult your legal advisors for SDF-specific requirements.
Disclaimer
The DIY Module is intended as general guidance to help organizations understand and implement DPDPA compliance steps using Open Source SAHAJ.
It does not constitute legal advice.
Organizations should consult qualified legal professionals for specific compliance obligations, especially if they fall under Significant Data Fiduciary criteria or have complex data processing operations.
Community Support
Compliance is easier when you’re not alone. Join our community forums and discussion groups to:
- Ask questions and clarify your doubts.
- Share implementation experiences and best practices.
- Connect with other organizations and experts working on DPDPA compliance.
Get in touch: Community Forum Link or Email