> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.nightfall.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.nightfall.ai/faqs/nightfall-vs-e-discovery.md).

# Nightfall vs E-Discovery: What's the difference?

E-discovery and data loss prevention (DLP) are different, albeit conceptually similar. Nightfall is a cloud-native DLP platform.

E-discovery typically pulls messages and files from a platform to store the information in third-party data warehouses, where messages and files can be searched, archived, or retrieved. This serves legal and compliance use cases should the data need to be retrieved or searched for a legal hold.

DLP ensures sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), isn’t shared inappropriately by scanning for content within messages and files that break selected policies. This serves security and compliance use cases around discovering, classifying, and protecting sensitive data.


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