Foundation · 2 min
What you need to know
What is ecommerce data governance?
Ecommerce data governance is the system of ownership, policies, classifications, controls and evidence used to manage data throughout collection, use, sharing, retention and deletion.
Who should be responsible for customer data?
Assign accountable business owners for purpose and quality, technical custodians for systems and security and privacy roles for oversight. Responsibilities must be documented.
How should ecommerce data be classified?
Classify data by sensitivity, identifiability, business purpose and impact if exposed or altered. The class should drive access, encryption, logging, sharing, and retention.
Who should be allowed to export customer data?
Only authorized roles with a documented purpose and approved scope should export customer data. Apply field limits, reauthentication, audit logging and secure delivery.
How should sensitive-data access be reviewed?
Review sensitive access regularly and after role, provider, incident or system changes. Compare actual use with approved need and remove dormant privilege.
How should data shared with third parties be governed?
Use contracts, approved purposes, minimum fields, security requirements, subprocessor transparency, retention and deletion duties, incident terms and periodic review.
How should merchants document why customer data is collected?
Maintain a processing record that links each field or category to purpose, source, lawful basis or permission, recipients, retention, owner and customer notice.
A quick store check
Classify each customer-data category and review its owner, access, exports, recipients, retention and deletion evidence.
Foundation · 2 min
Frequently asked questions
Is the IT team the sole owner of customer data?
No. Business owners decide purposes and quality while technical, security, legal and privacy roles share defined duties.
Should data classification appear in app reviews?
Yes. An app requesting higher-class data needs stronger necessity, contract and security scrutiny.