Personal Data

According to the GDPR , personal data is ‘any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person’. That seems very abstract and it is, for a reason: a lot is covered under that description. People often think of a name, date of birth or email address when it comes to personal data, but it entails much more than that! The criterion is that certain information can be traced back to a particular individual. The average salary of UU employees is not personal data, but an individual’s salary is. An address is not personal data by itself, but it is if you know who lives there. Because then, the data tells you something about a particular person.

Special categories of personal data

There are also special categories of personal data. This is data that is so sensitive that it requires additional protection. These special categories are data on someone’s ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, trade union membership, health, sexuality, genetic information or biometric information (such as fingerprints). Processing these types of data is not allowed by default, but under strict conditions there may be possibilities. Consult your privacy officer.