Search for data provenance vs data lineage and you’ll find plenty of definitions.
What you won’t find is why security teams suddenly care — especially when dealing with:
In reality, customers rarely say “provenance” or “lineage.”
They describe a problem.
Let’s start there.
A real customer question — almost verbatim:
“All our employees use Box Drive.
Box is synced locally on every laptop (Windows and macOS).
We want to stop employees from uploading files that came from Box —
even if:
If it originated from Box, it should never leave.”
Notice:
❌ No mention of “data provenance”
❌ No mention of “data lineage”
But that’s exactly what they’re asking for.
At first glance, this feels simple:
“Block uploads from Box Drive.”
That only works for one scenario.
Box Drive → Browser → Upload
Box Drive → Downloads → Browser → Upload
Now the file:
Box Drive → Desktop → Edited → Upload
Now the file has:
Yet the risk hasn’t changed.
This is where traditional DLP fails.
Data provenance is the ability to answer:
Where did this data originally come from — and can I trust it?
In the Box Drive example:
Security teams care because:
📌 Provenance is origin context, not file location.
Data lineage answers a different question:
What happened to this data after it was created?
In the same Box example:
Box → Local Sync → Copy → Edit → Browser Upload → SaaS App
Lineage explains:
This is what security teams rely on for:
Short version:
You need both.
Most DLP tools rely on:
That works until the moment:
Security teams then ask the killer question:
“Why can’t you just know this file came from Box?”
That question exposes the gap.
What customers actually want:
In other words:
“This file used to belong to Box — and that should always matter.”
This is not about blocking Box.
This is about preserving data identity across its lifecycle.
Now replay the same scenario — but replace “browser upload” with:
Security questions become:
This is where data provenance and data lineage stop being theory.
Security teams don’t want to protect folders.
They want to protect data — regardless of where it moves.
And that requires:
Whether or not anyone uses the words provenance or lineage.
If you’re comparing data provenance vs data lineage, the real answer isn’t which one is better.
The answer is:
Provenance gives trust. Lineage gives control. Security needs both.
And the Box Drive use-case proves it.
Short answer: No — and treating it like metadata is why controls fail.
Metadata tells you what a file looks like right now.
Data provenance tells you where it originated and why that matters.
In the Box Drive example:
If your security controls rely only on filename, hash, or path, you’ve already lost provenance the moment the file moves.
If your DLP only triggers at the point of upload, then yes — you’re missing lineage.
DLP answers:
“Something bad just happened.”
Lineage answers:
“How did this data get here — and where else has it gone?”
Without lineage:
That’s why teams say “our DLP didn’t help” — it reacted, but it didn’t explain.
Only for the simplest case.
The moment a user:
Path-based rules stop working.
That’s when security teams ask:
“Why doesn’t the system know this file came from Box?”
That question is provenance — even if no one says the word.
Not even close.
This happens with:
Any system that syncs cloud files locally breaks folder-based security assumptions.
If files can exist outside the original app, security must track origin + movement, not location.
This is where the problem gets existential.
Security teams now have to answer:
If you can’t track where data originated before it hits GenAI, AI governance becomes guesswork.
Provenance protects what goes in.
Lineage explains what happened after.
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