DPO’s and conflicts of interest

Despite being outside the European Union now, European Data protection news may still affect us, and so if you are DPO you should be interested in a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”).

The CJEU stated that DPOs should “be in a position to perform their duties and tasks in an independent manner” but “cannot be entrusted with tasks or duties which would result in him or her determining the objectives and methods of processing personal data on the part of the controller or its processor.”

This is an issue that we often see, and it is likely to become more important, as organisations seek to save money by adding data protection to another such as Finance Director or IT Manager.

If your DPO wears several hats, as it were, it could be seen as compromising their ability to be objective, and that could cause problems.

If you think you may be affected by this, we have a number of solutions, and you can contact us in the normal ways, use the contact form at https://zorva.info/about-us/contact-us/ or book a free 20-minute insight call at https://zorva.info/free-insight-call/