What is Data Governance?
Data governance is the set of rules and responsibilities that decide who can use which data, how it is defined and how it is protected.
Data Governance explained
It covers ownership (who is accountable for a dataset), definitions (what 'active customer' means), access (who may see what) and standards for quality and retention.
Governance can be light in a small company, a short document of metric definitions and a list of who can access what, and grows with the number of people and systems involved.
Example
A rule that only finance can see salary data, and that revenue is always reported net of refunds, is a governance decision.