When & How to Erase Data For DPDP Act Compliance

A summary of India’s Digital Personal
Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) and its data
destruction requirements

Download Solution Brief

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), which came into force on August 11, 2023, introduces a strong legal foundation for safeguarding personal data in digital formats. To operationalize the DPDP Act, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) introduced the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (DPDP Rules) on January 3, 2025, further defining the implementation framework.

Blancco’s certified data erasure solutions enable organizations to meet both the
DPDP Act and DPDP Rules obligations around data disposal, erasure verification,
and audit preparedness. Here are the key things you need to know about the DPDP
Act and how Blancco can help you comply.

Applicability and scope

The DPDP Act applies to all organizations that collect, process, or store personal
data in India, regardless of their physical presence.

Who’s Affected

Indian businesses processing personal data within the country. Foreign entities that process data of individuals located in India while offering goods or services. Data Fiduciaries and Processors, including SDFs based on criteria such as data volume, sensitivity, and risk impact.

What’s Affected

The act applies to digital data, including data digitized from a different format.

What’s Not Affected

Any personal data that is:

  1. Processed by an individual for any personal or domestic purpose.
  2. Data made publicly available by the Data Principal themselves or through a legal obligation.
  3. Certain government agencies handling data for national security, law enforcement, or legal compliance.

When Erasure Applies

While there are some exemptions, affected organizations must generally comply with obligations such as “purpose limitation,” which is a duty to limit the use of personal data to the specific purpose the user consented to. Once this primary purpose is exhausted, the data should be destroyed.

The Act also gives Data Principals the right to correct, complete, update, or erase their personal data. This obligates the Data Fiduciary to comply with that request.

Penalties for DPDP Act noncompliance

Monetary penalties for noncompliance with the DPDP Act may reach INR 250 crores ($29
million USD), depending on the nature, gravity, and duration of the breach, type of personal
data affected, repetitive nature of noncompliance, and whether the defaulting entity
has gained financially or avoided a loss due to the contravention. The Data Protection
Board (DPB) has the authority to impose fines upon completion of an inquiry

How Blancco can help

When personal data is no longer needed, or when Data Principals make data erasure requests, organizations governed by the DPDP Act must securely dispose of that data—whether on end-of-life assets or active networks. Blancco offers a suite of solutions to erase data across your entire range of data storage assets and ensure compliance with DPDP Act data destruction requirements. Blancco offers a suite of solutions to erase data across your entire range of data storage assets and ensure compliance with DPDP data destruction requirements.

Blancco Drive Eraser – Government Certified*

Erase servers, laptops, desktops, and drives (HDD, SSD, NVMe) with the industry’s most certified solution. Certified to erase to DoD 5220.22, NIST 800-88, and IEEE 2883 standards.

Blancco File Eraser

Erase files and folders from desktops, laptops, and servers manually or automatically.

Blancco LUN Eraser

Erase data in active storage environments while allowing your operating system to remain intact.

Blancco Eraser for Apple Devices

A focused solution for Apple products, including support for M1, M2, and T2 devices.

Blancco Removable Media Eraser

Erase USB drives, SD cards, CompactFlash cards, micro drives, and other flash memory devices.

Blancco Virtual Machine Eraser

Automatically destroy no-longer-needed data on VMs and hypervisors.

Blancco Hardware Solutions

Onsite appliances for loose, failing, or RMA drives and hard drive enclosures.

Blancco Mobile

Get business-scale diagnostics and secure data erasure of smartphones and tablets.

Blancco Management Portal

Access reports and certificates, and centrally manage users, licenses, and erasures.

* Blancco Drive Eraser is certified by:

STQC (Standardization Testing & Quality Certification) Certified for Common Criteria (ISO 15408) ADISA Certification

Let Blancco help you ensure data deletion compliance under the India DPDP Act.

Sign up for your free enterprise trial today.