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Module 1 of 7 · 15 min

What personal data is and what processing means

Free data protection course: read the module, review with the questions and move on to the next one. At the end, a test and a PDF certificate.

Module 1 of 7 · Course contents

Personal data is any information about an identified or identifiable person: their name, ID number, phone number, location, an online identifier or features of their physical, economic or social identity (GDPR, article 4.1).

Processing is almost everything

Collecting, recording, storing, consulting, using, sending, disclosing, combining or erasing data is processing it, on a computer or on paper (article 4.2).

Who is who

RoleWhat it is
Data subjectThe person the data is about
ControllerWhoever decides why and how data is processed: usually your employer (article 4.7)
ProcessorWhoever processes data on the controller's behalf: the payroll firm, the IT provider (article 4.8)
In practiceA restaurant's booking list with name, phone and «nut allergy» is personal data. Taking a photo of it with your phone to send to someone is already processing.

Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), article 4, points 1, 2, 7 and 8

Quick review

Check that you've understood. These are questions from the final test: tap an answer to see whether it's right and why.

What is personal data under the GDPR?

Is viewing a customer's record on screen processing data?

Who is normally the «controller» of customers' data?

Module practice test

5 new questions, different from the final test. Tap an answer to see whether it is right, why, and which rule it comes from.

1. Can a car number plate that reveals who the owner is be personal data?

2. Is data on paper also covered by data protection?

3. Is deleting a file with customer data processing it?

4. What is the person the data refers to called?

5. The provider that stores your employer's data on its servers, on its behalf, is…

Course contents