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ARTICLE · 05 MAY 2022

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The New Guidelines On Data Access Requests — Is The Bar Now Too High?

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The European Data Protection Board ('EDPB') recently published draft Guidelines ('the Guidelines') on the right of access (www.pdp.ie/docs/11025), bringing some clarity to several operational aspects of responding to access requests.

IrelandPrivacy
Davinia Brennan
Davinia Brennan
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The European Data Protection Board ('EDPB') recently published draft Guidelines ('the Guidelines') on the right of access (www.pdp.ie/docs/11025), bringing some clarity to several operational aspects of responding to access requests. Whilst the Guidelines are informative, they raise the bar in regard to what is expected of controllers. In particular, the EDPB's rejection of any proportionality limit with regard to the efforts a controller has to take to comply with the data subject's request is surprising.

This article examines the new Guidelines and offers guidance on the steps that organisations should take in light of them.

Background

The right of access set out in Article 15 of the GDPR provides individuals with a right to:

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