Tag Archives: data processor

Processing of personal and health data through apps and online platforms aimed at connecting HCPs and patients: the new digest of the Italian DPA

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On March 2024, the Italian Data Protection Authority (“Italian DPA”) has issued a new digest (“Digest”) relating to the processing of personal data, whether or not concerning health data pursuant to section 9 of the GDPR, carried out through the utilization of platforms, accessible through apps or web pages (“Platforms”), that aim to facilitate connection between healthcare professionals (“HCPs”) and patients.

The use of such Platforms poses high risks to the protection and security of patients’ personal data, and in particular health-related data, given that the latter are subject to an enhanced protection regime set forth by section 9 of the GDPR. 

The Digest seeks to summarize the applicable data protection rules that may be followed, and defines the roles of the parties, as well as the legal bases, applicable to (i) the processing of personal data of the users by Platform’s owners; (ii) the processing of HCP’s personal data by Platform’s owners; and (iii) the processing of health data of the patients by the Platform’s owner and by the HCPs.

Additional guidance is provided as to:

  • The necessity for the Platform’s owner to carry out (and periodically update) a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) pursuant to section 35 GDPR, since the use of Platforms determine a “high risk” processing of personal data, as such kind of treatment automatically meets the criteria issued by the European Data Protection Board for the identification of the list of data processing that may be deemed subject to the duty to perform a DPIA;
  • Which information notices should be provided, by who and to whom, as well as the contents that such information notices should have in each case, according to sections 13 and 14 GDPR;
  • The specific rules applicable to cross-border data transfers and data transfer to third countries.

Lastly, the Digest includes a list of the most common measures that are taken by the data controllers to ensure an appropriate level of technical and organizational measures to meet the GDPR requirements, such as encryption, verification of the qualification of the HCPs that seek to enroll within the Platform; strengthened authentication systems, monitoring systems aimed at preventing unauthorized access or loss of data.

The Digest should be very welcomed by the Platform’s owners, as it now gives a reliable and complete legal frame that may be followed in order to set up a Platform in a way which is compliant with the GDPR principles.

Guidelines on Concepts of Controller and Processor in the GDPR

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Have you ever struggled to pinpoint the roles, and subsequent responsibilities, of controllers, joint controllers and processors in the context of the GDPR? Have you found yourself in negotiations where it was discussed who acted in which role? Help is coming your way.

The European Data Protection Board (or EDPB), a body composed of – inter alia – representatives of EU national data protection authorities, has provided helpful guidance in that regard. Guidelines 07/2020 on the concepts of controller and processor in the GDPR (adopted on September 2, 2020 but more recently made available) offer clarifications on such respective roles.

Generally speaking, such GDPR roles have a functional nature and call for a factual rather than formal analysis.

In short:

  • The controller can be any type of entity. It determines the purpose (the why) and the means (the how) of the data processing. Certain aspects of the processing may be determined by the processor, but they have to be “non-essential”.
  • Joint controllers jointly participate to the determination of the purpose and means of processing, either through a common decision, or as a result of converging decisions. There is no joint controllership when different entities use a shared database or a common infrastructure, if each entity independently determines its own purposes.
  • Data processors act on behalf of data controllers and must be separate entities from data controllers. Data processors must follow the instructions of the data controller, with a limited decree of discretion in their execution.
  • The same entity may act, at the same time, as controller for certain processing operations and as processor for others: each data processing activity must be separately assessed.

Comments on the Guidelines can be sent to the EDPB until October 19.