1. A method for displaying data access privilege status for data in an enterprise, comprising: defining user groups offering common rights of access to a plurality of file servers, said file servers being organized as a hierarchy of storage elements having ancestors, said storage elements comprising nondistinctive storage elements that have only inherited access permissions that are inherited from one of said ancestors thereof, and distinctive storage elements that have at least non-inherited access permissions; maintaining a storage element permissions database containing only said non-inherited access permissions for said distinctive storage elements, and an inheritance indicator employing identical permission profiles, that identifies other said distinctive storage elements that are ancestral thereto in said hierarchy thereby to reduce data storage requirements; and consulting said storage element permissions database to determine a storage element-oriented set of said user groups that provide said common rights of access to selected ones of said storage elements; and reporting members of a directory-oriented set and a user-oriented set.