GDPR·Article Article 34·high·Component: Chapter IV: Controller and Processor

What this control requires

Controllers must notify data subjects of a personal data breach posing high risk to rights and freedoms without delay, using clear language to describe the breach, contact details, consequences, and mitigation measures, unless encryption or other measures eliminate the risk or notification is disproportionate. This control addresses Breach Communication.
— GDPR, Article Article 34

In plain English

Controllers must notify data subjects of a personal data breach posing high risk to rights and freedoms without delay, using clear language to describe the breach, contact details, consequences, and mitigation measures, unless encryption or other measures eliminate the risk or notification is disproportionate. In practice, this means you can prove you notification controller-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

GDPR administrative fines reach the greater of €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) coordinates supervisory-authority enforcement across the EU/EEA, and DPAs publish enforcement decisions citing specific Articles.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

A DPA or privacy auditor expects: a Records of Processing Activities (RoPA) entry, a documented lawful basis, evidence the Article's data-subject right is operationalised end-to-end, a named DPO contact (where required), and Article 30 records that match what the front-end actually does.

Within Chapter IV: Controller and Processor, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Article Article 34) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Incident Response

Runbook. Maintain a runbook keyed by incident type with named roles (IC, comms, scribe), an out-of-band comms channel, and a 72-hour timeline for external notification.

Tabletop. Run a quarterly tabletop exercise (ransomware, insider, supply-chain) and feed gaps back into the runbook.

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Operational checklist

  • Notification. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Data. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Processor. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Communication. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: controller, controllers, notification, rights, data subjects.

Evidence to collect

  • Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
  • Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject.

Common pitfalls

  • Runbooks that name a role but no person, or list a paging channel that no longer exists.
  • Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

Related controls in GDPR

References

Topics: governance riskdata protectionencryption at restincident responsepolicy managementprivacy management