Abstract: An approach is disclosed for generating an adjustable ruleset for fingerprinting data. The approach involves, for example, designating a data type as private. The approach also involves collecting private data relating to user from one or more data sources, wherein the private data includes a plurality of attributes that include a private attribute having the private data type. The approach further involves transforming the private attribute based on one or more configured rules for tokenizing the private attribute. The approach also involves generating a token corresponding to transformed private attribute; and initiating storage of the token for subsequent discovery of data having the private data type.