India DPDP Act 2023·Control IT-001·high·Component: International Transfer

What this control requires

Maintain a register of all international data transfers (country, processor, data category, volume, transfer mechanism). Implement a screening process to verify that no transfers are made to countries on the government's restricted list. Subscribe to government regulatory notifications to receive updates to the restricted country list. Review all SaaS and cloud providers for data storage locations. Objective: Prevent transfers of personal data to restricted countries and maintain a comprehensive audit trail of all cross-border data flows.
— India DPDP Act 2023, Control IT-001

In plain English

Maintain a register of all international data transfers (country, processor, data category, volume, transfer mechanism). In practice, this means you can prove you maintain international data transfer register-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

Penalties under the DPDP Act reach ₹250 crore per instance of significant non-compliance, and the Act applies extra-territorially to any entity processing personal data of individuals in India in connection with offering goods or services.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

Indian DPAs and statutory auditors will look for: documented consent capture and revocation flows, a designated Data Protection Officer (for Significant Data Fiduciaries), breach-notification workflows tied to Data Protection Board notification timelines, and Records of Processing that match the consent notice the user saw.

Within International Transfer, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control IT-001) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

  1. Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
  2. Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
  3. Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
  4. Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

Operational checklist

  • Maintain. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Implement. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Provide. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: international data transfer register, restriction screening.

Evidence to collect

  • Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
  • Vendor Risk Management. vendor_risk_management evidence

Signed policies, procedures, and registers document the safeguard. Processor due diligence, DPAs, and transfer registers evidence third-party controls. Focus: International Data Transfer Register & Restriction Screening.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

Related controls in India DPDP Act 2023

References

Topics: data protectiongovernance riskvendor riskprivacy managementvendor management