Why Data Protection Matters

Every organisation holds information about people. A clinic holds patient records. A training centre holds learners' names, test results and payment details. An HR team holds salaries, sick notes and bank details. A sales team holds customer phone numbers and order histories.

Each record is about a real person. If it is lost, stolen, sent to the wrong person or used for the wrong reason, that person can be harmed. They may lose money, be embarrassed, be treated unfairly or be put in danger. Data protection is the set of rules and habits that stop this from happening. It decides what an organisation may collect about people, why, how it keeps it safe, how long it keeps it, and what rights people have over it.

Why the GDPR is our reference

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European Union's data protection law. It has applied since May 2018. Many countries outside Europe have since written their own laws, and many of those laws use the same ideas and often the same words: personal data, controller, processor, lawful basis, data subject rights, breach notification.

So this course teaches the GDPR's ideas and terms as a common reference. But the law that applies to you is the law of your country and of the people whose data you handle. Details such as deadlines, fines and the rules for special data can differ. Your employer's policy tells you how the local law applies to your work.