Solicitor Niamh McMonagle, has been awarded two data protection qualifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). A specialist in employment law, Niamh is now a Certified Information Privacy Manager and Certified Information Privacy Professional (Europe).

One of a small number of solicitors in Ireland to achieve these IAPP certifications, Niamh will now use her knowledge to help businesses design and implement privacy programmes that comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Niamh is also now qualified to provide data protection training to organisations of all sizes and scales.

“These qualifications will really help me support my clients,” said Niamh

“Essentially, if someone can be identified from data that your organisation stores, it is considered to be ‘personal data’ in accordance with the data protection legislation and you are legally obliged to be able to account for it,” Niamh continues.

“You must have must a lawful basis for processing personal data and be transparent with the people providing the data about how it is being stored and processed. That could be your customers, staff, subscribers, suppliers or partners.”

Having a privacy programme in place is not only best practice, it also encourages a sense of trust and transparency between an organisation and the people it connects with. Importantly, storing data properly also reduces the threat of a cyber attack or data breach, which can be hugely costly and damaging to an organisation.

“Data privacy and protection is a complex and, let’s face it, not very exciting topic for many!” Niamh  adds. “It is an area that lots of organisations, understandably, don’t have at the top of their agenda. When you consider, however, the risks of not having a proper programme in place, it’s something you can’t really afford to ignore and it should be considered in any risk management review.