7 GDPR Principles Every Business Must Follow for Compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation is centred around 7 fundamental principles. These principles are like the lifeblood of the regulation and shape the laws for the collection, storage and processing of personal data. Let us break down the 7 GDPR principles and what they mean for your business.

The EU data protection framework, GDPR, is built on some fundamental rules known as the GDPR principles. These principles form the bedrock upon which organisations of all sizes, regardless of their financial resources or workforce should build their compliance program.

The GDPR principles are described in Article 5 and recital 39 of the law.

The GDPR principles cover everything from fair use of personal data to keeping it secure and confidential. They work hand in hand to help data controllers/organisations manage individuals’ personal data responsibly and accountably. It ensures an ethical approach that respects data subject rights and privacy. 

By following GDPR principles, businesses not only demonstrate their commitment to data privacy but also build customer trust, and avoid non-compliance fines.

Familiarise yourself with the important GDPR principles in this section.

#1 Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency

This triad forms the cornerstone of GDPR and ensures privacy-compliant management of personal data. A closer look at each rule helps you understand the principle better.

Lawfulness

GDPR makes it clear that you cannot process personal data unless you have a valid reason. This reason should be one of the six lawful bases for processing.

• The data subject has given consent for processing their personal data
  
• Data processing is necessary for:
  
  • Performance of a contract or to enter into a new one
  • Comply with a legal requirement
  • Protect the vital interest
  • Performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
  • Legitimate interests of the organisation without compromising the fundamental rights or freedom of the data subject
    

Let us consider a simple example of a website that collects personal data from European Union residents. Websites generally use cookies, which can be categorised as necessary cookies such as those used for load-balancing or non-necessary cookies such as those used for advertising purposes.

Cookies often gather personal information such as location and IP address, which means that a legal basis is needed for their use. You can rely on legitimate interest for necessary cookies as they’re essential for legitimate purposes like preventing server overload or storing login details. However, if you use non-necessary cookies, cookie banners are essential for compliance.

Fairness

In simpler terms, data processing should be fair to the data subjects. This means, whatever you do with an individual’s personal data should be within their reasonable expectations.

Fairness also depends on how you collect the data. If you have misled customers to give their personal information, the processing would be unfair to them.

Transparency

Those detailed privacy policies hyperlinked on sign-up forms or tucked into the website footers are more than just legal prints. They help people understand how organisations use their personal data. 

The principle of transparency requires that organisations should inform data subjects about the processing of their personal data in plain and layman words. It should also be easily accessible and conspicuously available.

#2 Purpose limitation

The purpose limitation principle means that businesses can only collect and use personal data for a clear, lawful and specific purpose. Ideally, the specific purpose for using it should be assigned at the time of data collection. 

It also restricts any entity from using the personal data for any purpose incompatible with the one assigned at the beginning.

This principle promotes transparency by letting individuals know why their data is being collected. It also upholds the privacy rights of data subjects.

Note that, any subsequent change to the specific purpose must be clearly communicated to the data subject. Such changes should not represent a whole new purpose that deviates from the original. 

If there are changes to the original purpose, make sure to get the individual’s consent unless the law explicitly permits otherwise.

#3 Data minimisation

It simply means that you should restrict the collection of personal data to what is necessary and adequate to fulfil the purpose of collection. The best way to follow the data minimisation principle is to keep the data collection to a minimum.

For example, a coffee shop offers a loyalty card. To track rewards, they only need the name and email address or the contact number. Collecting information like their national identification numbers, religious beliefs or financial information is irrelevant and inadequate.

Moreover, the time for which it is stored should also be limited till the specified period or until the purpose is fulfilled.

In short, if the data you hold is not necessary for the specific purpose, it is against the data minimisation principle. Therefore, conduct periodic reviews of your database and remove any unwanted or irrelevant data.

#4 Accuracy

The fourth GDPR principle requires organisations to take reasonable steps to correct or delete any inaccurate information. This also means that you should keep the data updated.

The right to rectification under GDPR is closely linked to the accuracy principle. When read together, you would see the significance of providing a data subject form enabling data subjects to correct their personal information.

Examine your data inventory and identify the information that needs regular updates. For instance, customer addresses or work emails may change periodically, unlike non-variable data such as date of birth. Conduct regular reviews of the variable data and correct them if necessary.

Note that, you can also keep records of any mistakes that happened. However, make sure to include the correct order of events and a note that a mistake was made.

#5 Storage limitation

Just as it is crucial to keep your data accurate, it is equally important to remove any unnecessary or unused information you possess. The GDPR does not specify exact retention periods for different types of data, so it ultimately leaves the decision-making process up to you. 

To put it simply, it is best to retain data only as long as it is necessary to achieve its intended purpose. Furthermore, respond and fulfil a customer’s exercise of their right to erasure without any delay.

Handling excessive data for unreasonable periods is not only a violation of the GDPR principles but also incurs additional costs and security risks to your company. 

Regularly conduct audits and reviews to identify any redundant, unused or irrelevant data and either delete or anonymise it. Moreover, establish a standard retention policy for each type of data. Be sure to make the schedule flexible so that you can delete the data early if data is found unnecessary.

#6 Integrity and confidentiality

The sixth principle is also known as the security principle and necessitates businesses to secure all of the personal information they possess. For this, you need to establish reasonable and appropriate security safeguards at technical and organisational levels to protect the data from unauthorised access or accidental data breaches.

The data security measures must be proportionate to the type and amount of data. Sensitive information such as biometric data requires a higher level of security. Furthermore, if you manage a considerable amount of sensitive data or any data that poses high risks if compromised, it is essential to perform regular impact and risk assessments and identify measures to mitigate those risks.

Encryption, strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, organisational policies, privacy training for employees and role-based access are some of the common measures taken by many organisations.

#7 Accountability

The accountability principle is an amalgamation of all the six other GDPR principles and serves as a mirror reflecting responsibility. It says that businesses should also be able to demonstrate their compliance with the law and its data protection principles.

For example, the consent banners with granular consent options on websites and consent logs demonstrate your compliance with the consent requirements. Similarly, privacy policies and cookie policies show that you are compliant with the transparency requirements. 

Furthermore, documentation of processing activities, data processing agreements with service providers, regular training programs for employees and security measures at the organisational and technical levels also demonstrate your GDPR compliance efforts.