Data Protection Law Compliance for Privacy Officers Training Course

Course overview

Privacy officers are expected to translate legal obligations into operating controls that business teams can follow, evidence and defend. That means more than knowing data protection principles: they must identify where personal data enters the organisation, determine a lawful basis for each use, respond to data subject requests, challenge high-risk processing and advise senior stakeholders when an incident requires notification. This course prepares privacy officers to manage those responsibilities with a repeatable, documented approach aligned to GDPR-style data protection regimes.

Across five days, participants work through the practical privacy office toolkit: records of processing activities (ROPAs), data-mapping interviews, lawful-basis assessments, privacy notices, data subject rights workflows, data protection impact assessments (DPIAs), processor due diligence, international transfer assessments and breach-response decision-making. They learn how to interpret legal requirements in operational terms, assign accountable owners, create evidence trails and communicate proportionate advice to product, HR, marketing, IT, procurement and executive teams.

Teaching combines instructor-led legal interpretation with worked scenarios, document reviews and facilitated workshops. Participants analyse realistic processing activities such as employee monitoring, marketing automation, cloud procurement and a suspected security incident. They leave with a structured Privacy Compliance Action Pack: a tailored ROPA entry, DPIA template and completed assessment, data subject request workflow, processor due-diligence checklist, breach decision log and 90-day implementation plan that can be adapted for their own organisation.

The programme suits newly appointed and developing privacy officers, as well as professionals who hold privacy responsibilities alongside legal, compliance, information security or governance roles. It is designed for participants who need to establish or strengthen an operational privacy compliance function rather than merely understand data protection law in theory.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Interpret GDPR-style data protection principles and map them to operational controls and accountable business owners
• Build and maintain a Record of Processing Activities using data-flow evidence, purpose statements and retention fields
• Assess lawful bases, special-category conditions and transparency requirements for defined processing activities
• Conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment using risk thresholds, stakeholder consultation and mitigation actions
• Design a data subject rights workflow with identity verification, deadline tracking, exemption review and response records
• Evaluate processors and international transfers through due-diligence questions, contract clauses and transfer-risk assessments
• Triage personal data breaches and produce a documented notification decision log with regulatory and individual communication actions
• Create a 90-day privacy compliance action plan with prioritised controls, owners, milestones and evidence requirements

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Privacy Officers — who must turn data protection duties into workable organisational controls
• Data Protection Officers — who need documented methods for advising, monitoring and reporting on compliance
• Compliance Managers — who oversee regulatory control frameworks that include personal data processing
• In-House Legal Counsel — who advise business teams on lawful processing, contracts and regulatory exposure
• Information Governance Managers — who own data inventories, retention practices and records management
• Information Security Managers — who coordinate breach assessment and privacy risk treatment with legal stakeholders

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course and does not require a law degree, prior DPO appointment or previous use of privacy-management software. Participants should be comfortable reading organisational policies, discussing business processes and working with spreadsheets or document templates. Familiarity with basic terms such as personal data, controller, processor, consent and information security will help, but these concepts are introduced and applied from first principles. A complete beginner should expect a rigorous legal-operational course, including structured reading of GDPR-style requirements and practical drafting exercises rather than abstract legal theory.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short legal briefings to establish the rule, then moves participants into the documents and decisions a privacy office must make. Exercises include mapping a processing activity into a ROPA, testing lawful basis and notice wording, scoring a DPIA, reviewing a cloud processor questionnaire and deciding whether a simulated breach is notifiable. Small groups compare reasoning, challenge evidence gaps and receive instructor feedback against GDPR-style requirements. On day five, each participant consolidates their completed templates into a practical 90-day privacy compliance implementation plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Privacy governance and accountable processing

• GDPR-style accountability principle and demonstrable compliance
• Controller, joint controller and processor role allocation
• Personal data, special-category data and criminal-offence data classification
• Data lifecycle mapping from collection to deletion
• Records of Processing Activities mandatory fields
• Privacy governance model, reporting lines and escalation routes
• Retention schedules and storage-limitation controls

Workshop: Participants map a business process and produce a completed ROPA entry with purposes, data categories, recipients, retention and control owners.

Day 2: Lawful, fair and transparent processing

• Lawful-basis selection and documented balancing tests
• Consent validity, withdrawal mechanisms and consent records
• Legitimate interests assessment three-part test
• Special-category processing conditions and safeguards
• Privacy notice content, layered notices and just-in-time messaging
• Purpose limitation and compatibility assessment
• Data minimisation requirements for forms and system fields

Workshop: Participants assess a proposed marketing and profiling activity, then produce a lawful-basis rationale and revised privacy notice content.

Day 3: Data subject rights and privacy risk assessment

• Data subject access request intake and identity verification
• One-month deadline calculation, extensions and case tracking
• Search, retrieval and redaction of third-party information
• Rights to rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability
• DPIA screening thresholds and high-risk processing indicators
• DPIA risk scoring, residual risk and mitigation planning
• Prior consultation triggers and DPO advice records

Workshop: Participants run a DPIA workshop for an employee-monitoring proposal and produce a risk register, mitigation plan and approval recommendation.

Day 4: Processors, transfers and contractual controls

• Processor selection criteria and privacy due-diligence evidence
• Article 28 processor contract requirements
• Subprocessor approval, audit rights and deletion commitments
• Data-sharing agreements and joint-controller arrangements
• International transfer mapping and transfer mechanisms
• Standard Contractual Clauses and transfer impact assessments
• Technical, contractual and organisational supplementary measures

Workshop: Participants review a cloud supplier scenario and produce a processor due-diligence checklist, contract issues log and transfer-risk recommendation.

Day 5: Incident response, assurance and implementation

• Personal data breach definition and incident classification
• Seventy-two-hour supervisory authority notification assessment
• Risk-to-individuals analysis and affected-person notification
• Breach decision logs, evidence preservation and communications
• Privacy monitoring, internal audit and management reporting
• Privacy metrics, compliance dashboards and issue escalation
• Ninety-day privacy programme prioritisation and roadmap design

Workshop: Participants triage a simulated ransomware incident, complete a breach decision log and finalise a 90-day privacy compliance action plan.

Tools & standards covered

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ISO/IEC 27701, NIST Privacy Framework, OneTrust

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions