Skip to content

Data protection officers

An organisation that processes personal data is in certain cases required to designate a data protection officer. The role of the data protection officer is to check that the General Data Protection Regulation is complied with within the organisation by means of, for example, conducting checks and providing information. On this page you can find out more about data protection officers.

The data protection officer's overarching and most important task is to monitor the organisation's compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. This means among other things

  • collecting information about how the organisation processes personal data
  • checking that the organisation complies with regulations and internal policy documents
  • providing information and advice within the organisation.

 

The data protection officer must also

  • give advice on impact assessments
  • be Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection's contact person
  • be the contact person for the data subjects and the organisation's personnel
  • cooperate with Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, for example during inspections.

Impact assessments

The data protection officer must always be involved if an organisation makes, or is considering making, an impact assessment concerning processing of personal data. An impact assessment is necessary if you intend to collect personal data and people's rights and freedoms are put at great risk.

The data protection officer is not responsible

The data protection officer has no personal responsibility for the organisation's compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. This responsibility always lies with the data controller or the data processor. Nor may the data controller punish the data protection officer for having carried out his or her duties.

Who can be a data protection officer?

The data protection officer must among other things

  • have knowledge of the General Data Protection Regulation
  • know the organisation's core activities and how the organisation processes personal data and know how the organisation's information technology and IT security function
  • have the ability to disseminate information and establish a data protection culture within the organisation. For this reason the data protection officer's personal qualities are also important.

The more complex the processing of personal data and the greater the amount of sensitive data that is processed the greater the expertise the data protection officer requires.

The data protection officer must be able to work independently and without being influenced by others within the organisation. It is therefore important that the data protection officer does not have other tasks that can collide with their role of data protection officer.

It is for example not appropriate for the data protection officer to be a member of the management team or to take part in making strategic decisions concerning core activities that include processing of personal data.

The data protection officer must have resources to be able to carry out his or her tasks within the organisation.

The data protection officer is for example to have sufficient time for the tasks and access to the information needed. The data protection officer is also entitled to further education.

The data protection officer may be

  • an employee or a consultant
  • a natural person or an organisation or group, but a contact person must always exist
  • data protection officer for one or several authorities or companies.

If the data protection officer's tasks are performed by a group of people, make roles and tasks within the group clear. Who does what?

Announce that you have a data protection officer

 

About the information on this page

If the information in English is different from the Swedish version of this page, the Swedish version applies.

Latest update: 1 February 2023
Page labels Data protection