For years, we’ve treated security and data governance as separate domains. Security teams defend the perimeter. Data teams organize, curate, and enable analytics. Rarely do you picture them working hand in hand. But this partnership may be the most untapped opportunity in the modern data stack.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Unused data assets are a liability. Forgotten dashboards, abandoned reports, and stale data products aren’t just clutter. They’re potential security breaches waiting to happen. If no one owns them, no one is deprecating them. And too often, they remain connected to sensitive warehouse tables long after their business value has expired.
That’s where metadata intelligence changes the game.
By leveraging the metadata you already have (column-level lineage, usage, semantics, ownership, and code) you can identify which assets are truly driving value and which are forgotten but still wired into sensitive systems. That visibility makes critical decluttering simple and effective.
And metadata intelligence goes beyond cleaning house. It can create sensitivity signals that bridge data and security concerns. Think alerts when a sensitive report stops being used. Or push notifications when unused assets remain connected to critical data. All to ensure a fast response.
This isn’t about perfecting your data. Business logic will always evolve, that’s what keeps organizations moving forward. The point is to give business teams the freedom to innovate in their favorite tools, while ensuring that security and data leaders can always see what’s being created and intervene the moment sensitive data is at risk.
How closely do your data and security teams collaborate on governance today?
