What Are GDPR Data Protection Officer Legal Requirements? Trace Them Now

One of the popular obligations included in EU general data protection regulations is the hiring of a data protection officer in premises. It is a compulsory requirement for enterprises who are processing the personal information of European citizens. This concept of DPOs is not new for European officials, and earlier it was compiled only on the Member State level, without maintaining any uniformity all around the Union. 

Making a selection of a DPO to comply with the GDPR requirements can be a really difficult task. Therefore, before rushing directly into recruiting a DPO – take a breather, sit down in a relaxed mode, and go through this entire post. This blog is all about defining GDPR data protection officer legal requirements, which are mandatory to be known by HR recruiters.

For Whom It Is Mandatory To Hire DPOs?

Prior to the DPOs requirements, it is important to learn and determine where these types of individuals are required. According to Article number 37 of this GDPR article, three major scenarios exist in which an appointment of GDPR data protection officers, either by a processor or controller, is mandatory. These 3 scenarios are illustrated below:

1. When the EU citizens records are accessed by a public authority.
2. Controller or processor core operations comprise of using activities, which demand regular as well as systematic data subject processing on large scale.
3. The vital operations of processor or controller include the use of sensitive content on a huge scale, or data is associated with criminal convictions or offences.

What Guidelines Are Give for DPOs By WP29?

The GDPR data protection officer legal requirements are dependent on the business scale and the scope of processing customers’ records. The following illustrated are as per the DPOs requirements, based on WP29 guidance:

1. Core Operations: The WP29’s guidelines state that processing should be considered a core part of business operations. It should be mentioned in a list of key operations for gaining a processor’s or controller’s purpose that acts like an inextricable arena of processor’s or controller’s activities. This will not comprise of supporting operations like IT support or payroll, which comes under the category of ancillary functions.

2. Large Scale: According to the GDPR data protection officer legal requirements, organizations need to determine possible risk factors when data processing takes place at a high level. This comprises of:

• The number of concerned data subjects
• The data items value or its overall range
• The total time duration of processing data
• The geographical arena of data processing

3. Monitoring Process – It is confirmed in the theWP29 guidance that processing should include all types of tracking as well as profiling on the web, comprising of the main aim behind the advertisement. Keep one thing in mind that this kind of monitoring is not prohibited on the internet platform and can include offline operation too. 

This process also renders assistance in the name of systematic monitoring where occurring takes place on the basis of the system, organized, methodical, or pre-arranged. All the operations take place in a normal manner with a smart strategy at the time of data collection.

Points Describing GDPR DPOs Legal Requirements

According to the GDPR 99 articles published till today’s date, there are three mails skills that a DPO should have, as described below:

1. Expertise level of knowledge regarding data protection laws and practices
2. Be known from all business sector and organizations of processors or controllers
3. Capable of fulfilling the task comprising of personal qualities and assertiveness

Note – No specific educational degree or graduation is required to become a DPO. He or she only needs to have the qualities or skills that are needed to be present in a GDPR data protection officer.

A DPO in the industry should be confident in behaviour and capable of handling sudden situations with ease. He or she should have problem-solving skills dealing with other business officials queries regarding cloud information security. Another legal requirement for GDPR data protection officers is that they should update themselves with trending cyberattacks to impose preventive measures in an organization to compete against recent threats.

A recruiter needs to check all the qualities which are needed for a DPO in office. The qualities are those that are mentioned in this post. Apart from this, if the business authority decides, they can appoint an internal employee with GDPR DPO designation but, remember that they are still required to have all the skills needed to become a data protection officer.

Time to Wrap Up

Learning about GDPR data protection officer legal requirements is essential before the hiring procedure. Once recruiters are clear with all the skills required in a DPO, they can begin with the recruitment procedure. However, if any of the skill is not clear, feel free to contact us or drop a comment in the respective comments section. Our team of cloud security experts will surely give an answer to your queries within 24 hours on a business day.