“Demystifying the General Data Protection Regulation

(GDPR)”

John Keyes LLB, BL

Assistant Commissioner - Investigations
Office of the Data Protection Commissioner
@DPCIreland

Private Security Authority (PSA)

Green Isle Hotel, Dublin – 12th March 2018
GDPR

 173 Recitals (not having force of law)

 11 Chapters

 99 Articles (having full force of law)

Irish SME Association (ISME) GDPR Survey
 Action to date on GDPR compliance by 507 SMEs

 Only 7% have completed GDPR plan

 76% are concerned about GDPR

 62% couldn’t name any change GDPR will bring

 70% have not identified steps/actions needed

 59% have no staff member responsible for overseeing compliance and

preparing for GDPR
European Data Protection Legal Framework
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
effective in law from 25th May 2018

• Data Protection Bill 2018 published by

Government on 01 February 2018 – an important
piece of the jigsaw

• Draft e-Privacy Regulation still under negotiation.

Council, Parliament and Commission positions
appear to have some ongoing distance between
them. Unlikely to be implemented this year
Focus of the GDPR
• Giving Data Subjects more control

• Making Data Controllers/Processors more

accountable

• Making personal data processing more

transparent

• Reducing personal data security vulnerabilities

• Co-operation between Supervisory Authorities

on cross-border processing
What’s largely unchanged in GDPR

 Concept of Personal Data

 Acts of Processing

 Data Protection Principles

 Definitions of Data Controller/Processor

GDPR Definition of Personal Data (Article 4.1)
 any information

 relating to

 an identified or identifiable

 natural person
Scope of Personal Data
o Article 29 Working Party Opinion
4/2007 on the concept of
personal data

o “data relates to an individual if it

refers to the identity,
characteristics or behaviour of an
individual or if such information
is used to determine or influence
the way in which that person is
treated or evaluated”
Definition of Processing (Article 4.2)
 Collecting  Consulting
 Recording  Using
 Organising  Disclosing
 Structuring  Disseminating
 Storing  Aligning or combining
 Adapting  Restricting
 Altering  Erasing
 Retrieving  Destroying
Data Protection Principles – Article 5(1)

a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner…

b) Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes..
c) Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary…
d) Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date….
e) Kept in a form which permits identification for no longer
than is necessary…
f) Processed in a manner which ensures appropriate
security…
Definition of Data Controller (Article 4.7)

“the natural or legal person, public

authority, agency or other body which,
alone or jointly with others, determines
the purposes and means of the processing
of personal data”
Are you a Data Controller/Processor?

Are you an organisation of any kind?

Do you interact with living individuals?
Do you acquire information about them?
Do you use that information for any purpose?

If you are an organisation that acquires and uses any

information about living individuals (personal data), for
any purpose, you are a data controller/processor
You must have a legal basis under Article 6(1)
GDPR to process personal data
 Consent

 Contractual necessity

 Legal obligation

 Performance of a task in the public interest

 Legitimate interest of the data controller

(balanced against the rights and freedoms of the
individual)
Consent under GDPR (Article 4 “Definitions”)
’Consent’ of the data
subject means any freely
given, specific, informed
and unambiguous indication
of the data subject’s wishes
by which he or she, by a
statement or by a clear
affirmative action, signifies
agreement to the
processing of personal data
relating to him or her
What’s new in GDPR

 Accountability – demonstrating compliance

 Transparency – providing information pre-processing
 Risk-based mandatory data breach reporting (72 hours)
 New and enhanced Data Subject rights
 Administrative Fines
 Data Protection Officer (DPO) for certain organisations
Accountability
Article 24.1

“….the controller shall implement appropriate

technical and organizational measures to ensure and
to be able to demonstrate that processing is
performed in accordance with this Regulation”

Article 24.3

“Adherence to approved codes of conduct as referred

to in Article 40 or approved certification mechanisms
as referred to in Article 42 may be used as an element
by which to demonstrate compliance with the
obligations of the controller”
Transparency Requirements
At the time when personal data is obtained, provide the data
subject with information in a concise, transparent, intelligible
and easily accessible form, including;

 Identity of controller and DPO

 Purpose of processing and legal basis
 Source of the data
 Specific legitimate interest pursued, if applicable
 Recipients of the data
 Data transfer arrangements
 Retention period
 Right of access, rectification, erasure, objection
 Right to withdraw consent
 Right to lodge complaint with SA
 Details of the contractual or statutory basis
 Details of automated decision-making
Transparency
• 250 hours or 30 full working days would be
required to read the privacy notices of the
websites we typically visit each year (Source: Lorrie
Cranor of the Federal Trade Commission)

• 30 hours would be required to read the 900

pages of user terms and conditions of the 33
apps typically found on a Norwegian smartphone
(Source: The Norwegian Readathon)
Transparency
• “Growing up Digital” taskforce of the Children’s
Commissioner for England

• Social networking platform long privacy policy

deemed ‘boring’ and not understood by group of
teenagers

• “Officially you own any original pictures and videos you post but we are
allowed to use them and we can let others see them as well, anywhere
around the world. Other people might pay us to use them and we will
not pay you for that. We can share with other companies any personal
information about you such as your birthday or who you are chatting
with, including in private messages”

• ‘Shocked’, less likely to engage and more likely to

delete their accounts
Breach Notification to Supervising Authority
• Notification to Supervising Authority
within 72 hours

• Unless “unlikely to result in a risk to the

rights and freedoms of natural persons”

• ‘Risk’ might include, for example, a risk

of identity theft or anything likely to
lead to a financial loss for the data
subject
Breach Communication to Data Subject
 “when the personal data breach is likely
to result in a high risk to the rights and
freedoms of natural persons”

 “the data controller shall communicate

the personal data breach to the data
subject without undue delay”

 ‘High Risk’ – higher threshold than report

to SA
Personal data breach risk evaluation
Recital 75 GDPR

“The risk to the rights and freedoms of natural

persons, of varying likelihood and severity, may
result from personal data processing which could
lead to physical, material or non-material damage, in
particular: where the processing may give rise to
discrimination, identity theft or fraud, financial loss,
damage to the reputation, loss of confidentiality of
personal data protected by professional secrecy,
unauthorized reversal of pseudonymisation, or any
other significant economic or social disadvantage”
Sources of Data Security Threats
Internal Threats;
 Social engineering
 Physical theft
 Privilege abuse
 Copying to personal accounts or drives
 Unintentional data leaks
 Loss of company property

External Threats;
 Social engineering
 Hacking
 Malware/Ransomware
 Malicious USB drops
 Physical theft
New and Enhanced Data Subject Rights
 Right to data portability
 Right to be informed
 Right to rectification
 Right of access
 Right of erasure
 Right to restrict processing
 Right to object to processing
Administrative Fines

 Article 83

 Up to €20m or

 4% of global turnover for the

preceding financial year
Data Protection Officer (Articles 37, 38 & 39)
 Public Authority or Body

 Core activities consist of

processing operations which
require regular and
systematic monitoring of data
subjects on a large scale

 Processing on a large scale of

special categories of data
(Articles 9 and 10)
Article 29 Working Party Guidelines
• Data Portability
• Consent
• Transparency
• Personal Data Breach notification
• Profiling and Automated Decision Making
• Data Protection Officer (DPO)
• Lead Supervisory Authority
• Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
[Link]

@DPCIreland

info@[Link]

Thank You