With General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force, it becomes essential that get clarity on the data protection officers’ roles and responsibilities. So here is what all we need to know about the role of a Data protection officer under the GDPR. The Data Protection Officer’s role is broadly categorized into four categories:

- Inform and Advice
- Monitor Compliance
- Provide Advice
- Cooperation
These categories further encompasses different roles and responsibilities which are given below:

- Giving proper training to the employees of the organization to comply with the data protection laws.
- To train employees so that they can conduct audits and assessments
- Serving as the point of contact between the company and the relevant supervisory authority
- To maintain all records of data processing activities.
- Responding to data subjects to inform them about how their personal data is being used and what measures are implemented or adopted by the company to safeguard the data.
- A DPO ensures the smooth operationalization of all data protection policies through all organizational units and makes sure the organization processes personal data of data subjects (employees, customers, and other individuals) in a compliant way.
- A DPO’s role also requires looking into the arena of the personal data acquired or used by the company or the organization to check if it is GDPR compliant.
- A DPO not only oversees that the data is compliant with the data protection policies but also cooperates with the data protection authority. The cooperation should be extended to other organizational units that indulge in processing and transmitting data, like Marketing, HR or Legal.
- Maintain the records of processing information.
- So the overall role of a DPO is to monitor, supervise and ensure that the organization completely complies with the GDPR and there is no breach of any security when it comes to processing or transmitting of the personal data.
A DPO is generally from an IT background, should have expertise in the subject and professional qualities so that he/she can fulfill the requirement of fitting in the shoes of a Data Protection Officer’s role.