{"id":3927,"date":"2025-03-28T13:18:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T13:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/?p=3927"},"modified":"2026-10-23T09:48:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T09:48:53","slug":"personal-data-processing-authorizations-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/publikacje\/personal-data-processing-authorizations-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Authorize People to Process Personal Data?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If your company processes personal data, you must control who can access it and within what scope. An authorization procedure helps organize this: it sets rules for granting, changing and revoking permissions. Without one, you risk unauthorized access to data, a <a href=\"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/publikacje\/documenting-reporting-personal-data-breaches\/\"><strong>GDPR breach<\/strong><\/a> and consequences from UODO.<\/p>\n<h2>What is an authorization procedure for?<\/h2>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/publikacje\/personal-data-processing-authorizations-guide\/\"><strong>personal data processing authorization<\/strong><\/a> procedure is a document that sets out the <strong>rules for granting, changing and revoking authorizations<\/strong> for people who access personal data in an organization. It is part of the personal data protection system and is consistent with the requirements of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/publikacje\/co-to-jest-rodo\/\"><strong>GDPR<\/strong><\/a> and national regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Implementing a procedure gives you specific benefits:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Control over data access<\/strong>: you determine who may process personal data and within what scope.<\/li>\n<li><strong>GDPR compliance<\/strong>: under Article 32 GDPR, organizations must implement technical and organizational measures to ensure processing security, including access control.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Protection against unauthorized access<\/strong>: you reduce the risk of data leaks or improper use.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Minimizing the risk of breaches<\/strong>: you ensure that only authorized people can access specific data.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Process transparency<\/strong>: you clearly assign responsibility for data processing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Activity monitoring<\/strong>: you track who has access to data and what actions they perform.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Readiness for an inspection<\/strong>: the authorization register provides evidence that procedures compliant with the law have been implemented in the event of an inspection by the supervisory authority, such as UODO.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>What should an authorization procedure contain?<\/h2>\n<p>Check that your procedure covers each of the following elements:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Purpose of the procedure<\/strong>: explain why it is being implemented, such as to control access or protect data.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scope of the procedure<\/strong>: identify which personal data it applies to, such as customer or employee data.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Legal basis<\/strong>: refer to the GDPR and national regulations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Roles and responsibilities<\/strong>: identify the people responsible for:\n<ul>\n<li>granting authorizations, such as the data controller or department managers,<\/li>\n<li>managing authorizations,<\/li>\n<li>monitoring access.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Authorization-granting process<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Request for authorization<\/strong>: for example, a paper or electronic form.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Defining the authorization scope<\/strong>: which data the employee will access and for what purpose.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Issuing the authorization<\/strong>: granting a formal document, such as an authorization issued to a named person.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Employee training<\/strong>: training the employee in personal data protection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Changing authorizations<\/strong>: establish a process for updating permissions, for example, when a person&#8217;s position or duties change.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Revoking authorizations<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>identify the situations in which revocation is required, such as the end of cooperation or a change in duties,<\/li>\n<li>set out the process for retrieving the authorization and securing the data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Authorization register<\/strong>: require a <a href=\"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/publikacje\/personal-data-processing-authorization-register\/\"><strong>register of authorized people<\/strong><\/a> who process personal data, including names, authorization scope and grant and revocation dates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Responsibility for breaches<\/strong>: explain the consequences of failing to comply with authorizations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>What should you do with the procedure after preparing it?<\/h2>\n<p>Creating a document is not enough. Here is what you need to do at each stage:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Create and implement it<\/strong>: develop a procedure tailored to the organization&#8217;s needs and processes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Provide training<\/strong>: employees must know the rules for handling personal data and understand why authorizations matter.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Grant authorizations<\/strong>: formally grant selected people access to personal data based on the need to process it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep an authorization register<\/strong>: record all authorizations granted and update the register on an ongoing basis.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Monitor compliance with permissions<\/strong>: regularly check whether employees act within their granted permissions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Update and revoke authorizations<\/strong>: change or revoke permissions when an employee changes position or duties, or leaves the organization.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Audit the procedure<\/strong>: periodically assess how effective the procedure is and make corrections.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make it available to supervisory authorities<\/strong>: during an inspection, the authorization register is evidence that GDPR requirements are met.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Steps for granting an authorization<\/h2>\n<p>A typical authorization process in a company looks like this:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A supervisor submits an authorization request for an employee.<\/li>\n<li>The data controller or an authorized person reviews the request.<\/li>\n<li>The employee signs a statement confirming that they have read the data-protection rules.<\/li>\n<li>A written or electronic authorization is issued.<\/li>\n<li>The employee is entered in the <strong>register of authorized people<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The employee receives training in data-protection rules.<\/li>\n<li>Use of the authorization is monitored.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>How AI can support the authorization procedure<\/h2>\n<p>If your company manages a large number of authorizations, consider using AI-based tools. Examples include:<\/p>\n<h3>Automatically assigning authorizations<\/h3>\n<p>AI can automatically assign authorizations based on an employee&#8217;s role in the organization and the type of data they process. This makes the process faster and less prone to errors.<\/p>\n<h3>Tracking changes to authorizations<\/h3>\n<p>AI-based systems can monitor changes to authorizations, including revocations and new assignments, and automatically update the register.<\/p>\n<h3>Detecting unauthorized access<\/h3>\n<p>AI analyzes system logs and monitors whether authorized people access only the information needed to perform their tasks.<\/p>\n<h3>Compliance reporting<\/h3>\n<p>AI tools can generate reports on compliance with the authorization procedure, making <a href=\"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/publikacje\/wdrozenie-rodo-w-firmie-audyt-danych-osobowych-rodo-gdpr-i-outsourcing-iod\/\"><strong>regular audits<\/strong><\/a> and ongoing GDPR compliance easier.<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>An authorization procedure gives you <strong>control over who in the company processes personal data<\/strong>. It ensures that only authorized people have access to data and that the process is documented and GDPR-compliant. Regularly monitoring and updating authorizations reduces the <a href=\"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/publikacje\/personal-data-breach-response-ai\/\"><strong>risk of breaches<\/strong><\/a> and strengthens data protection.<\/p>\n<p>If you need support developing or implementing a procedure, we can help at every stage, from an audit and preparing documentation to GDPR compliance advice.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Which data requires authorization to process?<\/h3>\n<p>All personal data processed by the company requires authorization: employee, customer and contractor data, as well as sensitive data such as health data.<\/p>\n<h3>What should you do if an employee does not follow the data-processing rules?<\/h3>\n<p>If an employee breaches the data-processing rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>conduct an internal investigation,<\/li>\n<li>take disciplinary action if necessary,<\/li>\n<li>revoke the employee&#8217;s authorization to process data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How often should the authorization register be updated?<\/h3>\n<p>Update the authorization register on an ongoing basis, whenever the staff composition, an employee&#8217;s role in the organization or the scope of data processed changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn why a personal data authorization procedure matters, what it should contain, how to grant and revoke permissions and how to monitor them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","sip_alt_url":"","sip_en_pl_url":"","sip_pair_uuid":"","sip_pair_state":""},"categories":[1578],"tags":[1448,1446,1553,1531],"specialization":[1215],"practice_area":[],"class_list":["post-3927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gdpr","tag-compliance","tag-gdpr","tag-gdpr-audit","tag-personal-data-protection","specialization-gdpr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4141,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3927\/revisions\/4141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"specialization","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/specialization?post=3927"},{"taxonomy":"practice_area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawaryn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/practice_area?post=3927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}