Pass CIPP-E Exam Guide

The GDPR defines data concerning health as a special category of personal data that is subject to specific processing conditions and safeguards. The GDPR prohibits the processing of such data unless one of the exceptions in Article 9 applies. One of these exceptions is the explicit consent of the data subject, which means that the data subject has given a clear and affirmative indication of their agreement to the processing of their health data. Another exception is when the processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of health care. A third exception is when the processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services. These exceptions are based on the principle of necessity, which means that the processing must be strictly necessary for a specific purpose and cannot be achieved by other means.

In the given scenario, the journalist does not fall under any of these exceptions. The journalist is not a health professional, a public authority, or a person who has obtained the explicit consent of the data subject. The journalist is not processing the data for any legitimate purpose related to public health, medical care, or social protection. The journalist is merely pursuing their own interest in publishing a story that may or may not be in the public interest. The journalist is not respecting the data subject’s rights and freedoms, especially their right to privacy and confidentiality. Therefore, the journalist would be least likely to be allowed to engage in the collection, use, and disclosure of the data subject’s sensitive medical information without their knowledge or consent. References:

• Article 4 (15) and Article 9 of the GDPR
• Health data | ICO
• What does the GDPR mean for personal data in medical reports?
• Sensitive data and medical confidentiality - FutureLearn
• Health data and data privacy: storing sensitive data under GDPR

 According to the UK GDPR, the processing of personal data must be lawful, fair and transparent1. Lawfulness means that there must be a valid legal basis for processing personal data, such as consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task or legitimate interests1. Fairness means that the processing must not be detrimental, unexpected or misleading to the individuals concerned1. Transparency means that the individuals must be informed about how their data is used, who it is shared with, what rights they have and how they can exercise them1. Therefore, the sentence that best summarizes these concepts is option A, which states that fairness and transparency refer to the communication of key information before collecting data; lawfulness refers to compliance with government regulations. References: 1

According to the GDPR, a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) is a process to help identify and minimize the data protection risks of a project. A DPIA is required when the processing is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, taking into account the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing. The GDPR provides a list of examples of processing operations that require a DPIA, such as:

• Systematic and extensive evaluation of personal aspects relating to natural persons which is based on automated processing, including profiling, and on which decisions are based that produce legal effects concerning the natural person or similarly significantly affect the natural person.
• Processing on a large scale of special categories of data or of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.
• Systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area on a large scale.

Therefore, an example of a scenario where a controller is most likely required to undertake a DPIA is when personal data is being collected and combined with other personal data to profile the creditworthiness of individuals, as this involves a systematic and extensive evaluation of personal aspects based on automated processing and profiling, and may have significant effects on the individuals. The other scenarios are not necessarily indicative of a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, and do not fall under the examples of processing operations that require a DPIA provided by the GDPR. References: Free CIPP/E Study Guide, page 37; CIPP/E Certification, page 18; GDPR, Article 35, Recital 91.

According to Article 3 of the GDPR, the regulation applies to the processing of personal data in the context of the activities of an establishment of a controller or a processor in the EU, regardless of whether the processing takes place in the EU or not. The regulation also applies to the processing of personal data of data subjects who are in the EU by a controller or processor not established in the EU, where the processing activities are related to the offering of goods or services to such data subjects in the EU or the monitoring of their behaviour as far as their behaviour takes place within the EU. In this case, MagicClean is a controller not established in the EU, and it does not offer services to EU data subjects or monitor their behaviour. Therefore, MagicClean is not subject to the GDPR, even if it uses a processor located in France to optimize its data. The location of the processor does not determine the applicability of the GDPR, but the context of the activities of the controller or the processor and the relationship with the data subjects. References:

• Article 3 of the GDPR
• IAPP CIPP/E Study Guide, page 14