DPDP Breach Notification Mandates: Roadmap to prepare for DPDP 72-Hour Rule

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2025 has created a new benchmark for personal data protection in India. One of the most important requirements under this law is the DPDP breach notification mandate that companies experiencing a data breach must report to the Data Protection Board in India (DPB) within the first 72 hours of becoming aware of it.

It can be challenging for organisations dealing with sensitive data to adhere to these deadlines. Impact assessment, early detection, as well as coordinated reporting would require robust processes. This is exactly where Privy by IDfy, India’s first full-stack privacy management and consent governance platform, plays a vital role.

In this blog, we will understand what the requirements for DPDP breach notification are, how to prepare for this, and how Privy by IDfy can be a game-changer for the DPDP breach compliance protocol

Also Read : The DPDP Compliance Checklist (2025): Step-by-Step Guide for Indian Businesses

What is the 72-Hour Breach Notification Rule?

A data breach under DPDP is an unauthorized disclosure, access, or modification of a Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The key points of this breach include:

1. The 72-hour breach window starts as soon as the breach is detected and not when it occurred.
2. The breach notifications should list the scope, nature, mitigation measures, and the affected data during the breach.
3. Non-compliance with this rule can lead to hefty penalties along with reputation damage for the organisation.
4. On becoming aware of any personal data breach, the Data Fiduciary should do its best to notify the Data Principal concisely and plainly and without delay, through the user’s account or any mode of communication registered by the user. The note should be from the Data Fiduciary, including:
• Description of the breach, including its nature, extent, and the timing of its occurrence
• Consequences relevant to the user that are likely to arise from the breach
• The measures implemented and being implemented by the Data Fiduciary, if any, to mitigate risk
• The safety measures that the user may take to protect her interests
• Business contact information of a person who can respond on behalf of the Data Fiduciary to queries, if any, of the Data Principal.

5. On becoming aware of any personal data breach, the Data Fiduciary shall also inform the Board,

   • Without delay, a description of the breach, including its nature, extent, timing, and location of occurrence, and the likely impact
   • Within seventy-two hours of becoming aware of the breach, or within such longer period as the

6. The Board may allow, on a request made in writing on this behalf,

   • Updated and detailed information with respect to such description
   • The broad facts related to the events, circumstances, and reasons leading to the breach
   • Measures implemented or proposed, if any, to mitigate risk
   • Any findings regarding the person who caused the breach
   • Remedial measures taken to prevent the recurrence of such a breach
   • A report regarding the notifications given to affected Data Principals.

   Also Read : What Is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)? Examples and Definitions

Roadmap to 72-Hour Breach Rule: How Should Indian Enterprises Prepare

• Incident Management

  Detecting the breach on a real-time basis can be really challenging, especially without any real-time monitoring. Privy by IDfy streamlines incident management with built-in root cause analysis, PII impact mapping, audit-ready reporting, and automated remediation, all within the regulatory timelines.

• Automated Breach Reporting

  It can be a hassle for the organisations to create a breach report under tight timelines and a stressful environment. Privy by IDfy generates templatised brand-themed reports that can be shared across the board, regulators, and auditors. This leads to a significant reduction in reporting overhead, standardising the documentation, and helps the organisation present a professional and compliant image during scrutiny.

• Streamlined Breach Assessment

  The organisations must assess the impact of the breach as well as identify the affected data without consuming a lot of time. Privy by IDfy looks into this by enabling automated data discovery and classification, thereby making it easy to evaluate the affected records and prioritise the responses. This provides teams with a well-structured end-to-end view of the incident by reducing the investigation time and increasing future defences.

Also Read : Penalties Under DPDP: Fines, Breach Scenarios, and How to Reduce

• One Click Notifications

  Organisations might find it difficult to notify the authorities and juggle between breach control and reporting. Privy by IDfy’s one-click notification triggers alerts to boards, regulators, and affected individuals directly from the portal. This eliminates the complete need to do manual coordination and ensures zero delay during such compliance-heavy situations.

• Audit Trail & Centralised Documentation

  This is often seen in organisations that, during such a crisis, maintain a proper log for compliance is often neglected.

  Privy by IDfy automatically maps affected business processes, applications, data assets, and third parties. This visibility helps in prioritising response efforts, reduces the risk of overlooking critical exposures, and prevents blind spots. This intern helps the organisations to standardise the documentation process and present a compliant picture for themselves during the investigation

How Privy by IDfy Helps in Data Breach Reporting in India

1. Get exact data assets containing breached information:

   Pinpoint the exact data assets involved in a breach and map them to business workflows instantly. This reduces guesswork and accelerates DPDP breach response, helping teams meet the DPDP 72-hour rule with precise, evidence-backed insights.

2. Cross-check breached data against stored records

   Verify breached records against stored consent logs the moment an incident is raised. This ensures rapid clarity on consent status, purpose, and processors involved, streamlining DPDP breach notification, improving data breach reporting in India, and building transparency with regulators and customers.

3. Launch PIAs instantly

   Trigger PIAs automatically for every logged incident to assess downstream risks and implement safeguards. This transforms DPDP incident notification from reactive reporting to proactive, continuous risk mitigation.

4. Receive an updated risk

   Get an immediate risk score when a processor is affected, giving compliance teams real-time visibility into ecosystem vulnerabilities. This enables tighter vendor governance, stronger contractual controls, and smoother reporting under India’s breach-notification framework.

   Also Read : DPO vs CISO: Where Security Ends and Privacy Begins

Conclution

Compliance with the DPDP 72-hour breach notification mandate requires not onlyspeed but also a lot of accuracy and coordination. Incident management is an extremelyimportant aspect of DPDP compliance as it ensures minimal disruption to the businessoperations, helps in maintaining compliance with the regulatory standards, along withreducing downtime. Incident management tools like Privy provide centralised logging,automated workflows, real-time alerts, reporting dashboards, and root cause analysis.These features improve the coordination between security, IT, and the compliance teams.

The major challenges that organisations face during such times, like poor incident detection, lack of visibility into systems, siloed communication, insufficient training of response teams, and inadequate documentation, are all taken care of by DPDP tools like Privy.

Get in touch with us at shivani@idfy.com to take control over your data with India’s most trusted DPDP compliance platform. We will keep you updated on the latest developments regarding the DPDP rules and how they will impact your business. Stay glued to this space for more information on data, privacy, compliance, and all things DPDP.