Overview of an Information Audit Form
What is the Information Audit Form?
The Information Audit Form is a non-legal tool, intended as an aid when creating a record of the personal data held by your company. A comprehensive inventory of personal data held is a fundamental step towards GDPR compliance, as well as general good practice in data privacy protection.
This Information Audit Form is structured around reasons for collecting and processing personal data. Please consider all areas of your business when deciding whether or not a section of this form applies to your company.
In-depth knowledge of the GDPR is not required to fill in this audit form, but honest answers are necessary for the integrity of record-keeping. If you are not sure of the answer, don’t know, or need to check, fill in the fields accordingly. Please also take note of the location(s) of data storage to fill in the last part of the audit.
In each section, our helptext provides you with examples of information that might go in each field of the audit table, to give you a sense of direction when answering those questions. These examples are for reference only. It is crucial that you fill in each field with factual, accurate and specific information that applies in your situation.
For each purpose for processing personal data, you must identify a legal basis for the processing. The GDPR has set out 6 possible legal bases that can be relied on when processing personal data:
(1) Consent: clear consent has been given for the processing of personal data for a specific purpose (consent must be specific to each purpose or opt-in and be easily withdrawn by the data subject, with evidence of this consent).
(2) Contract: processing is necessary for the performance of a contract you have entered into with an individual, or is necessary to carry out specific steps leading up to entering into a contract.
(3) Legal obligation: processing is necessary for complying with the law.
(4) Vital interests: processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person.
(5) Public function: processing is necessary for a public body to perform a task in the public interest, or an official function.
(6) Legitimate interests: processing is necessary for your legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party (applies unless these legitimate interests are overridden by a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data. A separate Legitimate Interests Assessment (LIA) is recommended).
Important Note: The GDPR is a complex principle-based law subject to further interpretation by the supervisory authorities of each EU country. If you are not sure whether your data handling practices are compliant with the GDPR, please seek professional legal advice.
