Privacy Officer Toolkit

As a privacy officer, you play an important role in ensuring that your organisation respects and upholds the right to privacy. That is why OVIC encourages all VPS organisations to appoint a privacy officer or privacy team.

But it is not enough just to appoint a privacy officer. As a privacy officer, you must have the right tools to allow you to properly carry out your role. That’s why we’ve created the Privacy Officer Toolkit – so that you can find what you need, when you need it.

The importance
of privacy

Role of the
Privacy Officer

Privacy law
– an overview

The PDP Act
– a deep dive

Reviewing and
improving practices

Handling internal
enquiries

Raising awareness
of your role

Privacy
Policies

Collection
notices

Privacy impact
assessments

Handling
complaints

Data
breaches

Working
with OVIC

Training
and networking

Most common
topics

Shareable
resources

Using the Toolkit

The toolkit contains 16 sections dealing with topics that are relevant to your role. Each section summarises the essential elements of the particular topic and sign-posts you to other OVIC resources (templates, guidelines etc) that you will require to develop expertise in that topic.

In this way, the toolkit is intended as a ‘one stop shop’ so you don’t need to search different parts of our website looking for core resources.

Toolkit structure

The 16 sections are designed to help you:

• Sections 1 – 2 explore why good privacy practice is important to your organisation and explain what different skills and functions make up your role as privacy officer.
• Sections 3 – 4 set out what privacy legislation you will need to know and provides guidance to help you be able to understand and apply it.
• Section 5 explains your role in assessing current privacy practices in your organisation and planning on how to improve them.
• Sections 6 – 7 aim to help you raise awareness of your role as the primary internal contact for all things privacy in your organisation and assist you in handling common staff queries.
• Sections 8 – 12 explore the core tasks and activities that you will carry out to embed good privacy practice in your organisation and respond to privacy issues that emerge.
• Section 13 and 14 describe the work of OVIC and how we can assist you. They also explain how you can hone your skills and knowledge through training and networking opportunities.
• Sections 15 – 16 allow you to quickly access resources on the most common privacy topics. They also contain useful collateral for you to distribute in your organisation.