Getting started with Data Mapping
Learn how data mapping gives you a live inventory of your systems, vendors, data and business purposes, and get set up in a few steps.
Data mapping is the foundation of everything you do in MineOS. It gives you a live picture of every system and vendor your organization uses, what personal data each one holds, who uses it, and why. Privacy assessments, vendor risk reviews, AI governance and data subject requests all build on this map, so the more complete it is, the less work everything else takes.
What your data map answers
| Question | Where the answer lives |
|---|---|
| Which systems and vendors do we use? | Inventory, kept current by discovery |
| What personal data does each system hold? | Data classifications |
| Why do we process this data? | Processing activities |
| Who owns each system, and is it approved? | Each data source's owner and status |
| How risky is each vendor? | Vendor details, Vendor scout research and cyber posture |
Privacy, security and AI frameworks worldwide expect organizations to know what data they hold, where it is and why they use it, from records of processing and privacy notices to data minimization and vendor due diligence. A live data map lets you answer these questions without starting from scratch each time.
How data mapping is organized
In the left navigation, Data mapping includes Inventory, Radar, Data classifications and Processing activities. These are the main capabilities behind them:
| Capability | What it does | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory | Your central list of every system, vendor and data source, with owners, statuses and custom fields | Navigate Your Inventory |
| Discovery / Radar | Finds the systems your organization uses by scanning email, SSO, cloud and your website, including shadow IT | Setting up data sources discovery |
| Vendor scout | Researches vendors with Mira AI to fill in details such as data types, hosting locations and certifications | Research Vendors with Mira AI (Vendor Scout) |
| Data classification | Identifies the types of personal data each data source holds, from AI suggestions to full content scans | Classification quickstart |
| Processing activities | Documents the business purposes for using personal data, connected to the systems and data involved | Map business purposes with processing activities |
| Field customization | Adapts data source pages to your organization with custom fields and layouts | Customize Fields and Page Layout |
How data mapping connects to the rest of MineOS
Your data map feeds every other part of the platform:
- Assessments pull data sources, data types and processing activities directly from your map, and stay current as it changes.
- Mira AI uses your inventory to draft assessments and research vendors.
- Risks link back to the systems they affect.
- Data subject requests use each data source's configuration to find, copy or delete personal data.
See Governance overview and quickstart.
Quickstart
- Set up discovery. Connect your email, SSO or cloud accounts, so MineOS can find the systems your organization uses. See Setting up data sources discovery.
- Review your findings. Go to Radar, add the systems you use to your inventory, and mark the ones you don't as unused. See Reviewing findings.
- Add anything discovery missed. Add systems manually from the catalog, or as custom data sources for internal tools. See Navigate Your Inventory.
- Assign owners and statuses. Give each data source a business owner and a status, so accountability is clear.
- Enrich your vendors. Run Vendor scout to fill in vendor details automatically. See Research Vendors with Mira AI (Vendor Scout).
- Map your data types. Review AI-suggested data types, or connect integrations for a full scan. See Classification quickstart.
- Document your business purposes. Create processing activities and connect them to your data sources. See Map business purposes with processing activities.
Updated about 2 hours ago