1. A method for displaying data access privilege status for data in an enterprise: 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 elements that offer only inherited access privileges that are inherited from one of said ancestors thereof, and distinctive elements that offer at least non-inherited access privileges; maintaining a directory database only for said distinctive elements, entries in said directory database comprising one of said distinctive elements and a list that identifies other said distinctive elements that are ancestral thereto in said hierarchy; and consulting said directory database to determine a directory-oriented set of said user groups that offer said common rights of access to selected ones of said storage elements.