Every Data Protection &
GDPR Policy You'll Ever Need

Are you wondering why are policies essential for a business, what do they need to contain and how to address the need? Then here is a guide for your organisation to help you meet your data privacy compliance obligations.

The requirements under the law:

The data privacy requirements vary for various businesses. If you want to know what is specifically required, then this guide will help you discover this. Policies can be used to increase awareness and limit the risk for an organisation with respect to data privacy compliance. They not only help with the data privacy compliance requirements but also with the fulfilment of these requirements.

However, true compliance is only achieved once the relevant policies and procedure are implemented and executed across an organization. If an organization is able to uphold their own published terms, policies and community standards then it is fulfilling the law. These may include but are not limited to privacy policies, age restriction, behaviour rules and content policies. Here are further legal references to help you build an understanding around the policies.

Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) states that personal data shall be: “processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’)”

So as and when users provide you with their personal data in order to join or access your service, they should be able to expect the service to operate in the way that you promise it will. The policy should not lie, and it should not leave out the details of use. Your policy must be clear and state what the data is used for and how it's stored in a true capacity.

It is a tool for you to disclose and to do what you say you are going to do. If this doesn’t happen then your collection of their personal data may be unfair and in breach of Article 5(1)(a). So, the need to keep to your own standards should also benefit organizations with the confidence and trust of the users, legal regulators and all stakeholders.

As long as they disclose and do exactly what they promise and define in the policy that they will do. It is important that under the law the users can feel like they can trust an organization's online or offline services with their personal data.

How can organisations comply?

Organizations should be able to follow the overarching principle that the policy is reality. This includes the following rules. Only use personal data in accordance with the privacy policy.

Article 5(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) defines the rule of the ‘purpose limitation’ principle, that personal data shall be: “collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes...”

Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require you to tell data subjects what these purposes are. You do this by providing privacy information, which you may include in a privacy notice, policy or statement.

Article 5(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires you to process personal data fairly and transparently. The combined result of these provisions is that you need to use your privacy information to tell users what you will do with their personal data and why, and then make sure that you follow this through in practice.

Why choose the Seers Policy Pack?

The Seers Policy Pack contains every policy that you will ever need to ensure compliance. You will be able to create these quickly following simple prompts or commands

So, if your business needs any of the following policies then you can create these with the help of the Seers Policy Generator Toolkit:

• It is able to ensure that appropriate policies and procedures are in place;
• It is an automated process;
• It can be published, and it verifies or attests that the correct policies and procedures are being followed;
• Firms are able to test the adequacy of controls in place;
• It may be used to detect breaches or potential breaches of compliance;
• It can be used in recommending any required changes in control, policy and procedure.

How detailed is the GDPR audit?

The GDPR Audit solution allows adequate planning and risk assessment for individual organisations. It is based on the potential impact or likelihood of risk to freedoms and rights of individuals and the need for corresponding safety measures or policies.

The audit can be helpful in explaining or maintaining the compliance ‘history’ of the controller. It may look at the level or number of complaints made to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the controller’s responses. It may look at the firm’s ‘self-reported’ breaches and the remedial actions identified by controllers. There may be communications with the employees, stakeholders or the public that may display less effective compliance controls and/or a weak understanding of data protection legislation. These may be identified through an audit

The audit may improve the business intelligence, such as news items in the public domain which highlight problems in the processing of personal data by the controller, and information from other regulators. It may also issue or contain statements of internal control and/or other information that highlight issues in the processing of personal data. You may be able to share the data protection fees and history as well as the need for the implementation of new systems or processes where there is a public concern that privacy may be at risk.

What mistakes do organisations make?

Organisations often mistake by overlooking key aspects of complying with data privacy regulations. They may overlook their legal obligations. Which is never a good idea. It is not a good strategy to follow but many organisations do. Perhaps it's because the watchdogs have been a little lenient in the recent years. However, more and more regulators are becoming stringent with the fines day by day

It is becoming increasingly important for financial markets to no longer explicit (e.g., litigations, sales, losses) and implicit (e.g. reputation, depletion) costs due to the increased probability of the embezzlement of consumer’s personal data or failure to protect personal data of data subjects out of sheer ignorance

According to the current “following the crowd” strategy and trends many firms are waiting for others to become fully compliant. This does not result in a very competitive or effective data privacy performance. It is obviously not safe for businesses, users or the stakeholders.

Under the recent changes any updates by the ICO, French CNIL and the Irish DPC make it imperative for firms to benchmark their data privacy performance not against how the “crowd” performs, but rather against what is expected of them and what the law prescribes. For that they must stay alert and willing to handle or repair any potential deviations.

How can the Seers GDPR audit tool help?

The Seers With the help of the Seers GDPR Audit solution, organizations can identify and assess their data privacy compliance gaps and take action to mitigate these risks. They are able to discover their current gaps under GDPR and become compliant to protect themselves against hefty fines, reputational risk, loss of business and future proof their organisation.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Data Protection Policy
• Data Breach Policy
• CCTV Policy
• Information Security Policy
• Data Subject Access Request
• Consent Policy
• Data Retention Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie policy
• Disclaimer
• Terms and Conditions
• Work from Home Policy

The Information Security Policy for example has some set components that you will not need to worry about with the help Seers Policy Pack. There is a fully compliant Data Subject Access Request Policy as well that helps data subjects to understand how to apply and when they can apply for the subject access.

There is a similar Consent Policy, Data Retention Policy, Privacy Policy and Cookie policy that helps with cookie consent management. It also helps with the maintenance of the consent and use of data for the website or business and limits potential liabilities for the business.

The Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions and Work from Home Policy are other ways to help in defining the key roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders and data handlers in the data processing systems.

How does it work?

All you need to do is:

1. Choose the policy you want to create
2. Answer our simple questions
3. Review policy
4. Download from the Seers Policy Pack Tool

Once you have completed the simple steps above, you can share and post your policy in locatable and clear places where the users it is intended for can find these and get the information they are looking for.

How to start?

You can start today for free with the Seers Policy Pack. However, the bottom-line is that if you are making a commitment to users about the content or other aspects of the online and offline service then you will need to have systems in place to ensure that your organisation meets those commitments. It can be held accountable to the promises in a court of law as well as with the privacy and data regulators.

One of your key requirements and goals should be to assess if your systems are adequate enough. Whether or not you are keeping to your promises and whether your original collection and continued use of the user’s personal data is fair enough. It may be unfair and in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) then you must take responsibility for it and make amends.