GDPR Article 45 — Transfers on the basis of an adequacy decision

What this control requires

Personal data transfers to third countries or international organizations are permitted without specific authorization if the Commission confirms an adequate level of protection, based on rule of law, data protection rules, independent supervisory authorities, and international commitments, with periodic reviews every four years. This control addresses International Data Transfers.

In plain English

Personal data transfers to third countries or international organizations are permitted without specific authorization if the Commission confirms an adequate level of protection, based on rule of law, data protection rules, independent supervisory authorities, and international commitments, with periodic reviews every four years. In practice, this means you can prove you data transfers-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.

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 V: Transfers of Personal Data to Third Countries, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Article Article 45) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

1. Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2. Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3. Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4. Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

Operational checklist

• Data. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Transfers. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• International. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Supervisory. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Rules. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: transfers, commission.

Evidence to collect

• Identity Scan. IAM / IdP exports — Entra ID, Okta, IAM Identity Center, Workspace directory — showing accounts, roles, MFA state and last sign-in.

Identity analytics (Okta, SailPoint, Access Analyzer) demonstrates least-privilege. Focus: Transfers on the basis of an adequacy decision.

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.

• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.23 — Web filtering
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) P5.1 — Data Subject Access to Personal Information
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.4 — Information in Shared System Resources
• CIS Controls v8 9.2 — Use DNS Filtering Services
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 AT-3(3) — Practical Exercises

Related controls in GDPR

• Article Article 59 — Activity reports
• Article Article 92 — Exercise of the delegation
• Article Article 71 — Reports
• Article Article 12 — Transparent information, communication and modalities for the exercise of the rights of the data subject
• Article Article 13 — Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject
• Article Article 48 — Transfers or disclosures not authorised by Union law

References

• European Union — GDPR
• Catalogue identifier: Article Article 45

Topics: identity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged accessprivacy management