Implications of GDPR for Educational Institutes
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of laws designed to protect the personal data of European citizens. As such, educational institutes such as schools and colleges across Europe must take steps to ensure they are compliant with the regulation. This applies to all data subject categories – staff,students, vendors, partners and suppliers.
Under the GDPR, institutes must make sure they are processing data in a secure, transparent and lawful way. They must also have processes in place that enable students to access their own data and request for it to be erased or amended if necessary. Furthermore, institutes must be able to demonstrate their ability to comply with the GDPR, which includes action plans, policies, processes, records of processing activities and staff training.
GDPR compliance may appear to be an extra burden for institutes, however in the long term, it not only aids in processing minimal data but also enhances the institutes’ processes
The GDPR means that institutes:
- must allow the data subjects to – request their personal data, request for amendment or erasure of the personal data,
- must strengthen the way they store, process, transfer and share the data with third party business partners.
- can retain the personal data of the individuals as long as they have a reason to retain the data
- must exhibit the competence to take care of Data Breaches
- must have action plans in place to conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments
What GDPR is ‘NOT’ :
- It does not restrict institutes in executing their business processes. You can process the data so long as you have the valid reason to process the data.Meaning, you are not required to go the data subject for every processing, the data subject consent is one of lawfull basis that allows you to process the data, there are other basis that allows you to process the data.
- You are not obligated to share all information requested by the data subject. Under the GDPR, you must only provide the data subject with the information necessary for them to exercise their rights under the regulation.
- GDPR does not make it mandatory for all schools to appoint a Data Protection Officer. Each organization should assess their own data processing activities to determine whether their operations require the appointment of a Data Protection Officer. If so, they must then comply with the relevant provisions of GDPR regarding the appointment of a Data Protection Officer.