Tags overview

Browse all tags used to classify elements across the platform.

Tags Overview — Managing Your Compliance Vocabularies

The Tags (Attributes) screen is the central control panel for every dropdown list, multi-select field, and filter value that appears across Priverion DPMS. If a form in ROPA, Assessments, TOMs, Risk, DSAR, Vendors, or any other module asks you to pick from a list, that list is built from what you manage here. For a newly onboarded organisation, visiting this screen early in the setup process is essential: without entries in these tag categories, users filling in records will find empty dropdowns and reports cannot be filtered or aggregated.

How to open it

In the left-hand sidebar, expand Compliance Settings and click Attributes. The screen is available to anyone with the Compliance Settings – Attributes read permission. If you do not have that permission, DPMS shows a "403 Forbidden" page instead, and your role may hide the menu item entirely.

What you see

When you first arrive, you see a clean card listing every tag category available to your organisation — for example, "Personal Data", "Purposes of Processing", "Legal Basis", "Document Types", "Vendor Types", "Risk Occurrence Likelihood", and many more. There is no search bar or pagination at this level; it is simply a directory of all available categories.

Each row shows the category's name and a small pencil icon on the right. Clicking either the row or the pencil icon takes you to the detail view for that category, where the real work happens. If you do not have the create/edit permission, the pencil icon appears greyed out and a tooltip explains that you lack the required permission.

Once you click into a category, you are on the detail view. The layout has three main areas:

A collapsible left-side menu listing all tag categories as tabs — click any of them to switch between categories without leaving the screen.
A breadcrumb bar at the top, showing "Attribute" (a link back to the category directory) and the name of the currently selected category.
A main content table listing all existing entries for the selected category, with a search bar above it and a + Create button in the breadcrumb area.

Working with this screen

Setting up a tag category for the first time

Suppose your organisation has just committed to tracking a new purpose of processing — "Marketing Analytics" — and it does not yet exist in the system. Here is how you add it:

From the category directory, click the pencil icon next to Purposes of Processing. The detail view opens with that category's tab active.
Scan the list to confirm the entry does not already exist. Use the search bar above the table to search by name — just type a word and the list filters in real time.
Click the Create button (the animated + icon near the breadcrumb). A small dropdown appears.
Click Add in the dropdown. DPMS navigates to the create form for this category.
Type the entry name — "Marketing Analytics" — in the Name field. If your organisation uses multiple languages, the form will show language toggles; fill in each language's translation to avoid validation errors on save (see Tips below).
Click Save. DPMS saves the entry and returns you to the Purposes of Processing tab. The new entry immediately appears in the list and, more importantly, becomes available as a selectable option in every ROPA record and Assessment that includes a "Purpose of Processing" field.

Switching between tag categories

While you are on the detail view, you do not need to go back to the directory to work on a different category. The left-side tab menu lists every category. Simply click the category you want — for example, switch from "Purposes of Processing" to "Legal Basis" — and the table updates instantly. The URL's tab parameter updates at the same time, so you can bookmark or share a direct link to any category tab.

If the left-side menu is taking up too much space, click the small circle icon at the far left to collapse it. Click it again to bring it back. The panel remembers your preference across page refreshes.

Importing tag entries in bulk from a JSON file

If you have many entries to add at once — for example, a legal team has prepared 15 new legal basis entries — you can import them from a .json file instead of creating each one individually:

Navigate to the detail view and select the target category tab (e.g., Legal Basis).
Click the Create + button in the breadcrumb area. The dropdown shows two options: Add and Import.
Click Import. Your browser's standard file-picker opens, filtered to .json files only.
Select your prepared JSON file and confirm. DPMS posts the file to the import API. If the import succeeds, the page refreshes automatically and your new entries appear in the list.

Heads up: The JSON file must match DPMS's internal tag schema. A malformed file may be silently skipped or cause a backend error without a detailed message on screen. Always test with a small sample export from another environment before importing a large file.

Deleting a tag entry that is still in use

If you try to delete a tag entry that is already linked to ROPA records, risk standards, or other elements, DPMS will not delete it immediately. Instead, it shows you a "Review Linked Elements" screen that lists every record currently using that entry. From there you can review the impact, then confirm Unlink and Delete to remove the entry and automatically clear the reference from all linked records. This safeguard prevents orphaned references from breaking your reports.

To delete an entry:

Hover over the row in the tag list. A trash icon appears on the right.
Click the trash icon. If the entry is unlinked, it is removed immediately and the list refreshes. If it is linked to other records, you are taken to the Review Linked Elements screen.
Review the list of affected records, then click the confirm action to proceed. A success notification confirms the deletion.

Heads up: If the entry is linked to risk standards and you unlink it, the risk assessments that referenced it will lose that association. This cannot be undone without manually re-assigning those records.

Creating an attribute template (Personal Data or Purposes of Processing)

Attribute templates are a special kind of tag. Instead of being a single label, a template bundles a group of related tags together. When a user applies a template while creating a ROPA activity, all the bundled tags are pre-selected at once — saving significant manual work.

Select the Personal Data Template or Purposes-of-Processing Template tab in the left-side menu.
Click Create → Add. DPMS navigates to the attribute template create form, which looks different from the standard tag form.
Type a template name — for example, "HR Records Data Types".
Below the name field, a linked objects table shows the existing personal data entries. Use the search bar inside that table to find the items you want to include (e.g., "Employee ID", "Salary", "Health Information") and check their checkboxes.
Click Save. DPMS validates that the name is not empty and that at least one attribute is selected — if either condition is not met, a toast error appears. On success, the template is saved and becomes available for selection when creating ROPA records.

Reviewing who changed a tag entry (Activity Log)

If you are an auditor or DPO and need to know when a particular tag was added or modified, click the clock icon in the top-right corner of the detail view. This opens the Activity Log panel on the right side of the screen, showing a chronological history of changes: who added, edited, or deleted entries in this category, and when. The clock icon is only visible if you have read permission for this element type.

Field reference

The standard tag create/edit form contains the following key fields:

Name — The tag's display label. Required in every language configured for your organisation. If you leave any language blank, DPMS will reject the save with a validation error asking you to fill in all required fields. For categories linked to regulations (e.g., Legal Basis), you may also see a Regulations field where you can associate the entry with one or more applicable regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
Responsible Organization (for certain categories such as Documents, Tasks, ROPA Classifications, Data Collection Point Types, and DPIA Classifications) — The organisational unit this entry belongs to. Appears only for categories that are scoped to organisational units.

The Attribute Template form additionally requires:

Linked attributes table — At least one entry must be selected. Use the search bar inside the table to find and check the desired entries. The save button will be blocked until at least one is chosen.

How this connects to the rest of DPMS

Everything configured on the Tags/Attributes screen flows directly into the dropdown lists and filter options throughout the platform:

ROPA records rely on Personal Data, Purposes of Processing, Legal Basis, Categories, Data Collection Point Types, ROPA Classifications, and Number of Affected Persons. Without entries here, those fields in ROPA forms show empty dropdowns.
Assessments and Assessment Templates draw their status options, classification labels, and template classifications from tags. The Country Groups tag type drives conditional logic inside assessment questions — without country groups configured, country-based conditional branches cannot function.
DSAR workflows use the DSAR Status and DSAR Types categories managed here. Default system statuses are protected from deletion, but you can add custom ones.
TOM records use TOM Classifications and TOMS Implementation levels. Some TOMS Implementation entries are system defaults that cannot be deleted.
Risk register — The Risk Occurrence Likelihood category directly populates the probability axis of the risk matrix. Any change to this category triggers an automatic recalculation of risk scores across the platform.
Vendors, Documents, Projects, Meetings & Activities, Organisational Units — each has its own tag categories (Vendor Types, Document Types, Project Classifications, etc.) managed here.

After completing your tag setup here, the natural next step is to verify that the options appear correctly in the relevant ROPA, Assessment, or Vendor forms. If a new user reports a missing dropdown option, this screen is the first place to check.

Tips & common pitfalls

Tip: Visit this screen early in your DPMS setup. Every module that uses dropdown lists depends on what you configure here. Building out your tag vocabulary before inviting other team members means they will find meaningful options in every form from day one.

Heads up: Default system entries (for example, certain DSAR statuses, Assessment Statuses, TOMS Implementation levels, and Meeting/Activity Types) cannot be deleted. Their rows do not show a checkbox in the bulk-select column and the delete icon is hidden. If you need a different label, create a new custom entry alongside the default rather than trying to replace it.

Entries managed by a parent organisation are read-only. In multi-tenant setups, some tag entries may have been shared down from a parent company. These entries show the parent's name in the "Managed By" column. You cannot edit or delete them — contact your DPMS administrator or the parent organisation to request changes.
Always provide translations for all active languages. When you create a new tag, the form shows a field for each language your company has enabled. Leaving any language blank will cause the save to fail with a validation error. If a tag was created without a translation for your display language, DPMS falls back to English — it does not show an error, but the missing translation may look inconsistent in your reports.
Changes to Risk Occurrence Likelihood take effect immediately. Unlike other categories, saving or deleting a Risk Occurrence Likelihood entry triggers an automatic update of the risk matrix across the platform. If you have the Risk Settings screen open in another browser tab, it will refresh automatically. Deleting a likelihood level that is already assigned in existing risk assessments will trigger the "Review Linked Elements" flow before deletion.
The "back" destination after creating a tag depends on how you arrived. If you clicked Create from the tags detail view, saving returns you to the tags detail view. If you arrived at the create form via a shortcut link from a ROPA or Assessment form (because a needed option was missing), saving returns you directly to that calling screen so you can continue your work.