An important part of your business’ GDPR considerations and security strategy is deciding whether you need to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). There are a number of things that affect whether you legally need to appoint one or whether it might be beneficial to your company. For example, GDPR states that any public authorities or businesses collecting large amounts of data MUST appoint a DPO. But just because you don’t always have to, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Data Protection Officers can be extremely helpful and beneficial for your security and data protection, so this is a decision you should take your time with.
If you’ve decided to appoint a DPO, there are a few additional things you must consider. Are you going to award the role to someone in-house, hire a third party or use a virtual service? To help you make an informed decision, we’re going to take a look at the role of a DPO, what a virtual DPO does and the benefits of choosing a provider instead of appointing someone in-house. Read on to find out more.
What does a Data Protection Officer do?
A Data Protection Officer (DPO) serves an important security and privacy function within your business. They are responsible for ensuring that the company is 100% compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) when processing the personal data of staff, customers, users or any other individual whose data they may need to collect.
Their primary function is to ensure data protection regulations are respected and followed and in order to do this, some (but by no means all) of their responsibilities might include:
- Ensuring data subjects are aware of their rights to protection, accessing their data and asking for it to be forgotten
- Giving advice to the business about their data protection efforts and any areas they may need to improve upon
- Mapping out the different data protection processes within the business
- Ensure compliance with GDPR and make sure every member of staff is aware of their roles and responsibilities when it comes to data protection
- Handling queries or complaints from data subjects, the controller or any other persons who may be facing problems
So what about a virtual DPO?
Now we understand the fundamental role of a DPO and how they contribute towards an organizations data protection efforts, we can look at what exactly a virtual DPO is and why businesses might go down this route. In a nutshell, as virtual DPO is responsible for the key tasks we’ve outlined above, but these are provided by an external specialist. You find, hire and then delegate these tasks to your chosen provider and they do all the hard work for you.
Some of the tasks and services that these virtual DPOs will provide include (but again, are in no way limited to):
- Informing businesses about their GDPR obligations
- Monitoring the company’s compliance and ensuring they’re following all guidelines
- Advising on any high-risk processes and ways the business can better protect their data
- Monitoring data protection and assessing risks
- Acting as the company’s point of contact on all data matters, including reporting data breaches to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
- Ensuring that the company obtains the highest possible level of expertise and up-to-date information
What are the benefits of a virtual DPO?
There are a number of reasons why organisations will benefit from hiring a virtual DPO instead of appointing one from within the company. Below, we’ll take a look at these reasons in more detail and this should give you a better idea as to whether using a virtual service provider is the right solution for your business. Some of the key benefits for hiring a virtual DPO include:
- These providers are cost-effective
For most small too medium-size businesses, they don’t require a Data Protection Officer to be in the office all the time, there’s simply no need to hire someone for this function all year round. Hiring someone to take on this position can be costly, whereas hiring a service provider can be much cheaper and can save your company a huge amount of money. Not to mention that many providers will offer tailored packages that you can increase or decrease depending on your budget and your data protection needs.
- They are flexible
Many virtual DPO providers will offer their clients access to a range of qualified experts, packages, guidance and related resources to help them navigate the complex world of data protection. Businesses can dip into these services whenever they need and benefit from their flexibility.
- They are scalable
Following on from the flexibility of these services, if your business is growing, facing new challenges or has been presented with new opportunities, you may need to scale your DPO engagements up or down accordingly. Using a virtual provider allows you to do this easily, something you can’t do with a full-time employee.
- They will work closely with all areas of your security teams
Despite not actually being in your office, you’ll still be able to reach your virtual DPO when you need them. The service provider makes it a priority for your DPO to work closely with everyone involved in your privacy and security functions to ensure everyone is aware of their roles and responsibilities.
- They can assist you with any issues as they arise
As well as working with your teams to get the best systems in place, your virtual DPO will also be on hand to deal with any issues as they happen and to recommend any corrective action. They will continue to monitor your data protection efforts and advise when they can. Some will even provide data privacy training to your teams to help better support them and ensure they know what to do should an issue arise. But ultimately, they are there to help deal with issues in real-time.
