The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is an independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. The ICO provides a free-to-use data protection impact assessment (DPIA) template for businesses and individuals to systematically identify and minimize the data protection risks of a project.
What is a DPIA?
When do we need a DPIA?
How do we carry out a DPIA?
Do we need to consult the ICO?
DPIA Checklists
A data protection impact assessment (DPIA) is a process aimed to evaluate risks to the rights and freedoms of individuals, in particular the risks' origin, nature, particularity and severity, as well as to analyse measures, safeguards, controls and mechanisms envisaged to address these risks, ensuring the protection of personal data.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) foresees the DPIA as a key instrument to enhance data controllers' (an entity that determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data) accountability as it helps them build and demonstrate compliance.
Although the template is not compulsory, it will serve as an evaluation and decision-making tool that will support smart grid operators in GDPR Cookie consent compliance. This includes implementing privacy by design principle, carrying out risk management processes or other voluntary commitments. The template is also expected to contribute to coherent application of the GDPR across Member States and to promote a common methodology for adequate personal data processing for smart grids operators.
The template defines the necessary process steps to find appropriate controls, building on examples of control measures that will help monitor smart grid applications from the start. In addition, data controllers that use the DPIA template may enjoy a competitive advantage by providing trust and gaining reputation for their commitment to personal data protection.
This GDPR Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) template will assist the privacy office with meeting these obligations, and ensure that its processing activities are lawful, fair, and transparent with respect to data subjects. Under Article 35 of the EU Representative GDPR, organizations will be required to conduct data protection impact assessments, or DPIAs.
This DPIA is based on guidance from the Article 29 Working Party (WP29)’s draft guidelines. The risk recommendations include relevant excerpts from that guidance for the reviewer’s reference (brackets in the recommendation explain this,) and should be replaced with the reviewer’s tailored recommendation before returning to the respondent.
Data Protection Impact Assessments are an important part of data protection compliance, particularly the data protection by design and default approach advocated by the UK's data protection legislation (including the GDPR Policy Template UK and Data Protection Act 2018). When a project is likely to result in a high risk to the individuals whose personal data will ultimately be involved, the law requires that you carry out a DPIA. Even when a DPIA is not legally required, it is still a useful exercise when planning a project that will involve the use of personal data.
In simple terms, a DPIA helps you to identify and minimise the risks associated with personal data and data protection in your project. Not only should you identify the risks themselves, but also the likelihood and severity of them.
It is vitally important to note that a DPIA is a serious exercise. If a high risk is identified that cannot be mitigated satisfactorily, you must consult with the Information Commissioner’s Office before starting to process personal data for the relevant purpose or purposes.
This template is a shorter and simpler version of our Data Protection Impact Assessment and is designed to be more open and flexible while still following the criteria set out in the UK GDPR. Rather than setting out a prescriptive set of granular questions under every heading, many sections in this DPIA template simply set out the key issues to be considered, enabling you to tailor the DPIA to your project more easily.
It should be noted that although carrying out a Copyright Disclaimer DPIA is not always legally mandatory, compliance with other GDPR requirements has to be assured at all times irrespective of the DPIA execution.
The template is the result of the consensus reached among members of Expert Group 2: Regulatory Recommendations for Privacy, Data Protection and Cyber-Security in the Smart Grid Environment, in the Smart Grids Task Force.
The template does not represent the opinion of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting on the behalf of the European Commission, is responsible for the use that may be made of the information arising from this document.