What is a DPO?

Information is both a shield and a weapon for a business. Organisations worldwide spend millions of dollars to invest in protective services to safeguard their data from data corruption, compromise and loss. 92% of consumers stated that businesses must be proactive in protecting their data. Data security is not only crucial for organisations but also the customers. Mostly, it is the customer data that is at stake. Clients will hence not do business with a company unless they are confident that their data is protected.

A DPO (data protection officer) is an organisational security leadership position responsible for overseeing an enterprise’s comprehensive data protection strategy and implementation procedure. According to the latest GDPR statistics, the need for DPOs has risen by over 700% in recent years and is only expected to increase further. Data protection officers play a vital role in an organisation’s structure by monitoring, automating, and regulating a business’s overall data security state.

Role of a Data Protection Officer

1) Inform and advise

Data Protection Officers are expected to educate and advise data processors and users on how to best comply with GDPR rules and regulations and other related data protection laws. They must also ensure that users are trained and informed about their data protection responsibilities and rights.

Users must also be able to approach them regarding any sort of data processing queries or issues. They are also bound to confidentiality regarding the organisation’s data security issues.

2) Monitor compliance

An organisation’s DPO must also monitor the institution’s compliance with rules and regulations set by the GDPR and other data protection regulatory bodies. They are also responsible for managing the business’s internal data protection policies and ensuring they are being followed satisfactorily. One of the DPO’s primary responsibilities is helping the business stay accountable for its data processing activities.

3) Provide advice

Data protection officers are also responsible for carrying out inclusive data protection related audits and assessments to ensure that the enterprise’s data protection strategies are being efficiently and accurately followed. After assessing the firm’s current state of data protection efficiency, the DPO must then provide comprehensive and holistic advice to users about what they can do to improve their data security and align internal operations with prioritising data protection.

4) Cooperation

The enterprise’s data protection officer must handle any complaints or queries by the organisation’s management or data users. They must also report failure to comply with data protection rules and regulations or potential data breaches to the regulatory data protection body. If the supervisory regulatory body in question has any further requests or evaluations, the DPO must cooperate.

Furthermore, DPOs must be able to produce and provide records on request by higher-level management or regulatory bodies. Therefore, they must also record and maintain detailed timely reports regarding the enterprise’s current state of data security.

Crust: Flexible Solution To Secure Your Company Data

Crust’s open-source CRM platform functions as a database tool that records all of your customer’s history and information. This information remains secure with you can host Corteza, the platform the CRM is built upon, on your own cloud.

Moreover, you can host it behind your own firewall. This gives you complete control over the information that you choose to store on the platform. Try a demo of Crust CRM to see how our open-source software solutions can improve and revitalise your data protection strategy.