Workload and procedures used by European data protection authorities related to personal data protection: a cross-sectional study

Objective Data protection authorities (DPAs) are independent public authorities supervising the application of the data protection law. There is one DPA in each European Union (EU) Member State. Workload and procedures used by European DPAs were analyzed via a cross-sectional study. Results DPAs from 13 countries participated: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, and Slovakia. Responding to opinion/guidance requests in DPAs was highly heterogeneous. Procedure types used by DPAs varied, from telephone-based advisory service in Norway to a formal legal opinion in Austria. The deadline for responding to the requests varied considerably in DPAs. The number of opinion/guidance requests sent by data controllers and processors, and the number of opinion/guidance requests and complaints sent by data subjects, increased from 2015 to 2018 when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into full effect; it decreased in 2019. Few DPAs organized education about data protection for the research community. In conclusion, the procedures and workload of DPAs in the EU were highly variable. It is important to study these aspects further, as they may assist in tailoring future data protection policies and procedures at the EU level.