This article is the first in a 2-part series on DSARs. The first part will cover commonalities of DSAR and Part 2 will cover responding to DSARs.

Operationally, litigation and investigation, data breach response, and the response to data subject access requests (DSARs) follow similar paths. This includes data identification, collection, processing and the need for an “eyes-on” review of data—specifically, the ability to locate, isolate and manage personally identifiable information (PII).