Data Entitlement vsAuthorization

Data Entitlement is normally mixed with Data Authorization which is not 100% accurate. There is no doubt, there are few places where both can be used interchangeably but mostly, they should not.

Entitlement is something which you inherit, or which comes as a default or which you get along-with something else whereas Authorization comes because of an action, or it expects an action in future. For example, you are ENTITLED to something and at the same time you are AUTHORIZED to do X, Y and Z things.

Before we understand the difference between Authorization and Entitlement, it’s very importance to understand what Prescriptive and Descriptive behaviors are.

• Prescriptive means, how it should be, and an action is expected.
• Descriptive means, how it is.

‘Authorization has a Prescriptive behavior whereas Entitlement has Descriptive behavior.’

Let’s try to understand with an example, at work you must have heard, you are ENTITLED to 20 annual leaves and maybe 12 medical leaves etc. But when you apply for a leave, your manager has the AUTHORITY to accept or reject your leave.

Another example, if a user is from Procurement department, he or she is ENTITLED to see tables related to Procurement process. Same way, if a user is related to procurement of electronics ONLY then he or she is ENTITLED to see only electronic rows from a table which also contains data related to furniture, general hardware, IT related etc.

Referring to the same example, few people in the Procurement department will have the AUTHORITY to fix or delete data in procurement related tables to maintain data quality measures.

Another example, in an organization there are many roles like manager, senior manager, general manager, director, AVP, VP etc. Now, you must have heard, a VP is ENTITLED to have a company car and at the same time he/ she is AUTHORIZED to use it for company use ONLY.