DPDP Glossary
Processing
A wholly or partly automated operation or set of operations performed on digital personal data, including collection, storage, use and sharing.
Section 2(x)
What it means
Section 2(x) defines processing broadly: wholly or partly automated operations on digital personal data, including collection, storage, use and sharing. Almost every product action on personal data is processing. The compliance question is rarely “is this processing?” — it is “on what basis, for which purpose, by whom?”
Worked example
Collecting an email at signup, storing it in a CRM, using it to send a service message, and sharing it with an email vendor are all processing operations — potentially with different purposes and processor relationships at each step.
In practice
Inventory processing activities end-to-end. Tag purpose, basis (consent or Section 7), Fiduciary vs Processor, and retention. Avoid shadow pipelines (spreadsheets, shared inboxes) that never enter the inventory.
Source
Section 2(x) · Official text (PDF)
Educational summary based on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and Rules, 2025. Not legal advice.