Netskope unveils data lineage tool for AI governance

Netskope has announced a new data lineage product designed to give organisations visibility and analytics on how data is created, moved, and used across cloud services, networks, and devices.

The product, Netskope One Data Lineage, is part of the Netskope One platform. It tracks the provenance and lifecycle of information as it is stored, transmitted, and accessed by users and systems.

The launch targets demand for stronger governance as companies deploy AI tools and AI agents. Data lineage provides an audit trail for compliance, internal investigations, and data policy enforcement.

Many security teams already use data loss prevention tools to identify and control sensitive information. Netskope argues that older approaches struggle to correlate activity across sources and interactions, limiting visibility into how data spreads inside and outside an organisation.

Tracking data

Netskope One Data Lineage tracks and visualises the movement of sensitive data across an organisation, including where it originates, how it moves, and who uses and accesses it. It also records how information propagates and changes over time.

The product keeps policy controls attached to data as it is extracted and reformatted into different document types and file formats. This is meant to address a common governance challenge: the same content can reappear in new files and locations during day-to-day work.

The service provides a historical timeline for documents and files. Security and IT teams can use it to see who accessed a file, how it travelled across systems, and how it changed after being copied or edited.

Netskope groups the feature set into three use cases: retrospective investigations after data exfiltration or inappropriate access; identifying risky user behaviour that could indicate insider threats; and adjusting and enforcing access policies based on observed data flows.

Compliance focus

Netskope is positioning data lineage as both a compliance tool and a security control. Audit trails have become a core requirement as privacy and data protection rules expand. Many companies also need evidence for internal governance policies, contractual obligations, and industry standards.

Krishna Narayanaswamy, co-founder and CTO at Netskope, said the company sees full context as essential for modern data security, particularly where AI tools are in use.

"Organisations need the full context of how data is moving across the digital environment, along with the ability to prevent unauthorised access and use of it, and to prove compliance with increasingly rigorous data protection regulations. This is especially important with the widespread adoption of AI agents and other AI tools," said Krishna Narayanaswamy, co-founder and CTO, Netskope.

He also linked the product to a broader platform strategy.

"As part of our industry-leading platform, Netskope One Data Lineage ensures that unified data security supports, rather than hinders, an organisation's ability to grow and innovate," said Narayanaswamy.

Market context

AI governance is rising on the agenda for security and risk teams. Many organisations want to use internal data in AI-driven workflows while limiting exposure of confidential information and meeting regulatory expectations. That has increased interest in controls that track where data resides and how it is used.

Jennifer Glenn, research director for IDC Security and Trust Group, said the volume of sensitive information is growing as content is created, copied, and shared across tools and teams.

"Successfully implementing AI requires trust in the data that fuels it. The volume of sensitive and confidential data increases daily as new information is created, copied, shared, used, and moved," said Jennifer Glenn, research director for IDC Security and Trust Group.

She added that governance and audit trails can provide assurance about who and what has access to information.

"Strict governance of the organisation's data, along with verifiable audit trails of where data lives and how it is used, can offer assurance that only the right people and devices have access to the appropriate information. This offers organisations with a trusted foundation of information that is ready for AI use," said Glenn.

Availability

Netskope One Data Lineage is in preview for customers, with general availability expected in the first half of 2026.