10 min read
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has raised the bar for how organizations process and secure personal consumer data even since its enforcement in 2018. Today, the core GDPR principles still apply, requiring businesses to ensure ethical, transparent, and secure data handling.
It’s essential to revise your data processing practices to ensure your organization respects user privacy and avoids non-compliance fines. Read this guide as we walk you through the 7 GDPR principles for data protection and tips to stay compliant.
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- Businesses that process the personal data of European Union residents must ensure compliance with the 7 GDPR data protection principles.
- Understanding and following data protection principles is essential for respecting user privacy and avoiding costly GDPR non-compliance fines.
- To stay compliant, businesses must: be transparent; keep as minimal data as possible; ensure data accuracy; collect data for established purposes only; set retention periods; document compliance.
Why are data protection principles important?
Data protection principles are important to help respect consumer privacy and ensure business accountability. Here are the main reasons why data protection principles are essential:
- Protects user privacy. Principles like data minimization and storage limitation ensure that organizations don’t indefinitely store personal data or collect too much information.
- Builds customer trust. Consumers are more likely to purchase from companies that ensure proper GDPR compliance. A report by Cisco found that 47% of consumers trust companies better due to GDPR compliance.
- Prevents data misuse or abuse. Limiting data collection and storage together with the adoption of security measures helps ensure no unauthorized access or data loss.
- Ensures GDPR compliance. The GDPR requires data controllers to follow data protection principles to ensure proper compliance. Failure to comply can lead to GDPR fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the firm’s global annual revenue.
What are the data protection principles?
The GDPR outlines 7 principles that are foundational for data processing activities, including:
- Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency
- Purpose limitation
- Data minimization
- Accuracy
- Storage limitation
- Integrity and confidentiality
- Accountability
These principles apply to the data controller – a legal person or agency that defines the purposes for data processing and how it’s carried out.
GDPR data protection principles explained
To help you understand what these GDPR principles mean for your organization, let’s review each principle in-depth.
1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency
GDPR Article 5(1) requires that personal data is “processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.” Here’s a breakdown of what that means:
- Lawfulness – organizations must have a valid legal basis in place. The GDPR Article 6 outlines 6 lawful bases, including consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, legitimate interests, and a public task.
- Fairness – data must be processed in the best interest of the data subject (the natural person whose personal data is collected). It must be processed only for the purposes it was collected.
- Transparency – organizations must communicate to the data subject what personal data they collect, how they do it, and its purpose. The text should be written using clear language so that every user can understand what happens with their data.
2. Purpose limitation
Purpose limitation refers to personal data only being processed for the purposes stated at the time of data collection. If the purpose is incompatible with the originally stated one, personal data cannot be used unless consent is obtained again. All of the purposes must be clearly communicated to data subjects and outlined in the privacy policy.
The only exception is processing for purposes in the public interest. This includes statistical or scientific and historical research purposes. In such cases, personal data processing is not considered incompatible with the original purpose.
3. Data minimization
Data minimization states that personal data collection shall be kept to a minimum. This means that organizations should only collect personal data that’s necessary to fulfill a purpose.
To ensure data minimization, you should periodically review what data your organization has collected and evaluate which data is no longer required.
As an example of data minimization, let’s say a restaurant employer sends job applicants a form with basic questions like their name, surname, resume, and contact information. In such a context, asking for information like religious beliefs or marital status would be considered excessive.
4. Accuracy
Personal data accuracy refers to keeping information up to date where necessary and correcting inaccuracies as soon as possible.
Under the GDPR, users have the right to rectification, meaning they may also request to change inaccurate data, and organizations must do that without delay.
To ensure data is accurate, audit your data and keep a record of information that requires regular updates. For example, addresses or phone numbers may change over time, while race or place of birth are static data.
5. Storage limitation
Storage limitation refers to storing personal data only for the period of time that is needed for the purposes it was collected. While there are no exact GDPR data retention periods, any data that is no longer used should be removed.
To ensure legal compliance and reduce the risk of a data breach, periodically review your database and delete or anonymize data that you don’t use.
Failing to establish data retention periods can result in hefty GDPR fines and penalties, which can result in hundreds or even millions of dollars. For example, the online retailer Verkkokauppa.com received an administrative fine of €856,000 for indefinitely storing user personal data.
6. Integrity and confidentiality
Integrity and confidentiality require organizations to ensure security for all the personal data they’ve collected. This usually involves such safeguards as encryption, multi-factor authentication, staff training, and access controls.
GDPR Article 32 also requires organizations to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures, and outlines the following:
- Personal data encryption and pseudonymization
- Ensuring confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of processing systems
- Ability to restore data access after physical or technical incidents
- Regular security measure testing and evaluation
For sensitive data, like biometrics or health data, security should be even stricter. It’s beneficial to run a GDPR risk assessment to assess vulnerabilities and adopt risk mitigation measures.
Failing to ensure data security can lead to data breaches which then result in large penalties. Some of the biggest GDPR fines for data security violations include H&M receiving a €35.3 million fine and British Airways getting fined €22.4 million.
7. Accountability
The accountability principle refers to the responsibility of organizations to be able to record and demonstrate compliance with GDPR. Some of the documents for proof of compliance involve:
- User consent records
- Processing activity documentation
- Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) with third parties
- Staff training program records
- Evidence of Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) where required
To make compliance easier, it’s recommended to assign data protection responsibilities internally. Alternatively, if the processing is carried out by public authority or it’s part of the business’s core activities, a Data Protection Officer (DPO) must be assigned.
How to ensure compliance with GDPR principles?
To become compliant with GDPR principles, organizations need to implement the general GDPR compliance steps. The main requirements include:
- Obtain user consent – when consent is the legal basis for processing data, you need to acquire informed, specific, and explicit consent that involves affirmative action.
- Create a privacy policy – outline what data you collect, why, and how users can exercise data subject rights. Write the privacy policy in clear and simple language.
- Minimize data collection – review what personal data your organization collects and ensure that you only keep information that’s absolutely necessary.
- Establish data retention periods – create data retention periods for different categories of data you collect and ensure it's only stored as long as necessary for its original purpose.
- Ensure data accuracy – make sure the data you collect is kept up to date, and allow users to update information when needed.
- Adopt security measures – implement measures like access controls, encryption, strong passwords, and employee training programs to protect data from breaches and unauthorized access.
- Create compliance records – document and record consent, legal bases, security policies, and other important data as proof of compliance with the GDPR.
Frequently asked questions
The UK GDPR consists of 7 principles, including lawfulness, fairness, and transparency; purpose limitation; data minimization; accuracy; storage limitation; integrity and confidentiality; accountability.
The GDPR Article 5(1) outlines 6 main data protection principles, but the GDPR Article 5(2) also outlines the accountability principle.
