Did you know you have a right to contact the DPO?

Being able to contact the DPO is an important data subject right that is often overlooked.

The DPO's job is to monitor compliance and advise the controller as a way of compensating for the significant imbalance between the controller and the data subject. Only some categories of controllers, including all public authorities, are required to have a DPO but these are usually the organisations where the risks to data subjects are the greatest.

Controller must guarantee that their DPOs are properly resourced, that they are not under instruction in relation to their tasks and that they have access to the highest levels in their organisation. This ensures that DPOs can act independently and effectively in the interest of data protection compliance.

If the data subject has any queries or issues he or she has a right to contact the DPO about all relating to the processing of their personal data and the exercise of their rights. For example you might not understand or agree with a request to exercise your rights in which case you can to contact the DPO.

Many organisations are not identifying their DPO or are making it hard for them to be contacted in breach of GDPR.

For EU institutions and agencies the EDPS maintains a list of DPOs. Hopefully the Irish Data Protection Commission will follow suit with a list of Irish public-sector DPOs thereby increasing transparency and making it easier for individuals to exercise their rights.