Article 5 of the GDPR: The main principles of personal data protection

Article 5 of the GDPR sets out the fundamental principles that every organization must respect when processing personal data. This is one of the central pillars of the regulation, on which all legal obligations regarding compliance are based.

Article 5 of the GDPR explained

Article 5 specifies that the data must be:

Treated lawfully, fairly and transparently (principle of lawfulness and transparency)
Collected for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes, without incompatible further processing (principle of finality)
Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary (principle of minimization)
Accurate and, if necessary, kept up to date (accuracy principle)
Kept for a period not exceeding that necessary (principle of limitation of conservation)
Protected against loss, destruction or unauthorized access (principle of integrity and confidentiality)

The data controller must also be able to demonstrate compliance with these principles (principle of responsibility or accountability).

Why is this article important for your GDPR compliance?

These principles are the basis of any compliance process. If you do not respect them, you risk sanctions even if you respect other more technical obligations.

They also structure the way you document your treatments in the register, write your policies or train your teams.

How to comply with Article 5 of the GDPR?

Review each of your treatments to see if they meet these 7 principles.
Create or update your processing log to document this analysis.
Raise your employees’ awareness of these principles in GDPR training.
Set retention periods and implement archiving/deletion procedures.

Examples of application of Article 5 of the GDPR

A company that only collects the name and email for a newsletter respects the principle of minimization.
An organization that keeps CVs for 5 years without justification violates the principle of limitation of conservation.
A website that clearly informs the user about the use of their data respects the principle of transparency.

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