The annual data protection plan supports accountability and serves as a management reporting tool. It supports decision-making and optimizes the use of resources, increases the organization’s data protection awareness and develops a data protection culture. Above all, the annual plan brings clarity, increases systematization and visibility to the often complicated data protection tasks and projects – and thus peace of mind. At the end of the accounting period, based on the data protection annual plan, an informative financial statement can also be prepared quickly. These are good reasons why it is worth drawing up a data protection annual plan, even if it is not mandatory.
The three important elements of the annual plan are definition, scheduling and reporting. Here are more details about these three concrete steps that will help you prepare or update the data protection annual plan:
- Define tasks and contents
In addition to the statutory tasks, the annual plan should define the tasks relevant to the organization; the purpose of the plan is to support the organization’s goals. Remember to break down the tasks into reasonably sized task sets, as it facilitates not only the implementation of the plan but also the delegation of tasks.
- Schedule
Divide the tasks of the annual plan over the entire calendar year. In addition, it is worth making sure that the schedule of the tasks is planned effectively in order to avoid unnecessary extra work, for example, a description of the processing activities (Records of Processing) should be done before going through the privacy statements. The data protection annual plan is a dynamic tool, so be prepared to update the plan and schedules when necessary.
- Report
The management of the organization is typically interested in the overall status of data protection, i.e. the answer to the question “Is everything alright in our organization?”. A well-prepared and maintained data protection annual plan helps with reporting and clearly informs the organization’s data protection status. At the end of the accounting period, based on the data protection annual plan, an informative financial statement can be prepared quickly.
The data protection annual plan should be drawn up at the same time as the organization’s other annual planning work, which is often done for the fiscal year or calendar year. Privaon’s DPO365 service brings clarity to the role of the data protection officer through well-executed planning, reporting and guidance. DPO365 service helps and supports you to draw up the data protection annual plan.