How many data protection principles are there in GDPR? The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) lays out six data protection principles that summarize the regulation’s numerous requirements.
These are vital resources for anyone seeking to figure out how to comply. Small businesses, who typically lack the financial resources to hire data protection professionals to help them comply, may find them particularly valuable.
In this blog, we look at each principle and offer suggestions on how to incorporate them into your GDPR compliance activities.
1. Lawfulness, Fairness, and Transparency
First, organizations must guarantee their data gathering techniques don’t infringe the law and don’t hide anything from data subjects.
To stay legal, you’ll need a solid understanding of the GDPR and its data-gathering laws. You should specify the sort of data you collect and why you’re collecting it in your privacy policy to keep data subjects informed.
2. Purpose Limitation
Organizations should only gather personal data for a specified purpose, express that purpose clearly, and only collect data for as long as that purpose requires.
Processing done for public interest archiving, scientific, historical, or statistical objectives grants additional liberty.
3. Data Minimization
Organizations must only process the personal data necessary to accomplish their processing goals. There are two primary advantages to doing so.
First, if a data breach occurs, the unauthorized individual will only have access to a restricted amount of information.
Second, data minimization facilitates the accurate and timely maintenance of data.
4. Accuracy
Personal data accuracy is critical to data security. GDPR must make every necessary action to remove or correct erroneous or incomplete data.
Individuals have the right to have erroneous or incomplete data removed or corrected within 30 days of their request.
5. Storage Limitations
Businesses have an obligation to erase customers’ personal information once the data is obsolete.
How do you recognize when data is no longer required? Organizations should only preserve the data for as long as the individual can be deemed a customer.
So the true question is, “How long can an individual be called a customer after making a purchase?”
The response will differ depending on the industry and the reason for data collection. Any company that is unsure how long it should preserve personal information should get legal advice.
6. Integrity and Confidentiality
This is the only concept that addresses security directly. GDPR must protect the personal data of customers.
processed in a way that ensures the personal data’s proper security, including protection against unauthorized or unlawful processing, as well as accidental loss, deletion, or damage, by employing relevant technical or organizational measures.”
Because technology and organizational best practices are continuously changing, the GDPR is purposefully unclear about what safeguards businesses should take.
Organizations should currently encrypt and/or pseudonymize personal data whenever possible, but they should also examine additional options.
The Seventh Principle is:
A seventh principle, accountability, is included in the GDPR and serves as an overarching set of standards for the other six.
Organizations demonstrate that they have the appropriate documents to establish that they are satisfying their compliance standards by achieving accountability.
This is usually accomplished with a combination of technological and documentation approaches, such as:
Contracts between the controller and the processor; relevant policies and procedures; privacy warnings; records of staff training; security monitoring and event logging records; data breach records; and data protection impact assessments
This isn’t a full list of the steps that businesses can take, but it does cover the basics.
To demonstrate compliance, organizations might consider establishing a DPO (data protection officer) or another designated data protection lead.
You can also demonstrate your dedication to data security by obtaining certification to well-known standards like ISO 27001, as well as annually validating compliance with the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and other contractual security obligations.