Training module
Operational Privacy Controls
Implement role-based privacy controls and data subject rights handling within an ISO/IEC 27701-aligned PIMS
Are your privacy controls lived or just documented?
This training module teaches how to embed ISO/IEC 27701 operational controls and data subject rights handling into workflows with clear ownership and evidence.
Overview
What this module is about
ISO/IEC 27701 requires privacy controls to be defined, assigned, executed, and evidenced. The real challenge is not documenting controls, but making them work in daily operations.
This module focuses on implementing and sustaining operational privacy controls and data subject rights processes within a Privacy Information Management System (PIMS). Participants learn how to translate ISO/IEC 27701 role-based requirements for PII controllers and processors into workflows, ownership models, documented procedures, and reliable records.
The emphasis is on operational clarity: clear responsibilities, structured handoffs, consistent request handling, and traceable evidence that controls are functioning as intended.
Audience
Who it is for
Management system implementers and coordinators
Executives and department heads accountable for management system performance
Those responsible for processes, policies, assets, risks and controls
Auditors seeking insight into management-side practice, not audit technique
Consultants working on management system design, governance or improvement
Decision supportIs this module for you?
It is a good fit if you…
need to operationalise privacy controls across real workflows.
want clear role-based handling of data subject rights.
need consistent evidence for privacy controls in daily operation.
coordinate privacy execution across teams and suppliers.
support audit-ready, repeatable privacy operations in a PIMS.
It may not be the best fit if you…
are looking for privacy fundamentals or role definitions.
want DPIA methods or risk assessment logic.
expect legal interpretation or jurisdiction-specific guidance.
already run mature, stable operational privacy controls at scale.
What to bring
This module assumes participants can already work with core privacy concepts and can navigate their organisation’s processing reality.
Helpful background includes:
Basic privacy / data protection concepts and terminology (PII, processing, recipients, retention, disclosure)
Clarity on processing context, roles, and scope artefacts (at least at a high level)
Familiarity with internal workflows and systems where PII is handled (ticketing, CRM, HRIS, support tooling, shared drives)
Agenda
What is taught
9 parts01Operationalising ISO/IEC 27701 controls in a stand-alone PIMS
How to turn ISO/IEC 27701 control intent into concrete, owned operational practices in a stand-alone PIMS without diluting controller and processor responsibilities
02From control statements to workflows and evidence
How to translate control requirements into simple workflows and define just enough evidence to show decisions were made and followed
03Controller controls: operating patterns
How controllers run transparency, purpose alignment, retention, and disclosure as routine processes with explicit exception handling
04Processor controls: operating patterns
How processors operationalise “acting on instructions”, manage sub-processors, and operate shared platforms without role confusion
05Supplier and sub-processor interfaces
How to split privacy control responsibilities between internal operations and enforceable supplier requirements across the lifecycle
06Data subject rights handling as a managed process
How to run DSAR handling end to end with clear intake, routing, decision ownership, and consistent response logic
07Special cases and failure modes
How to recognise and handle complex DSAR scenarios and avoid common breakdowns such as incomplete searches or unmanaged dependencies
08Sustaining operational controls over time
How to keep privacy controls current as products, data uses, vendors, and tooling change through lightweight ownership and review routines
09Technology as an enabler
How tooling supports execution and traceability of privacy controls while keeping human judgement central
Outcomes
Learning outcomes
01
Operationalise ISO/IEC 27701 controls in a stand-alone PIMS
02
Design and run a structured data subject rights process
03
Establish and govern privacy control interfaces across roles and suppliers
Define proportionate, auditable evidence
Manage complex DSAR cases
Clarify controller and processor operating patterns
Maintain control effectiveness as environments change
Materials
The content and the assessment
Written module
The full content in writing, complete in itself. Videos are recorded for parts of it as an alternative way through, and the written module always carries everything.
Exercises
Graded work on the case organisation's own registers: structured answers checked against the encoded case, written answers scored against a rubric traced to it, with a trainer holding the final word on every assessed item.
On completion
The assessed exercises must be passed before the certificate is issued.
Scheduling
No public run of Operational Privacy Controls is scheduled at the moment. Tell us you are interested and we will let you know when the next one opens, or discuss running it in-house.
Module facts
- Module ID
- HAM-DP-S-03
- Discipline
- Data Protection
- Part of tracks
- Management System Manager
Case organisation
All modules share one company
Each module enters the company at a particular point in its history and finds it as that history has left it.
Northstar Integrated Services AG is a group headquartered in Zurich, operating in six European countries, with about 1,350 employees at the end of 2025. It provides digital operations platforms and managed operational services to regulated organisations in healthcare, the public sector and industrial services. Founded in 2008 as a field-operations firm serving business customers, it had about twenty-five employees when its first regulated customer, a hospital group, required documented decisions, named accountability and evidence on request. It moved into the platform business in 2016 and in 2024 acquired an operating business in Poland and the Czech Republic, whose legal entity continues inside the group.
Linked registers
Organisation and people, roles, risks, objectives, policies, documents and records, communications, findings, audits and reviews, interested parties, processes
Records, not summaries
The evidence sits in the registers and documents where a real organisation would keep it.
A history
The company has a timeline from 2008, so a structure can be examined before and after it changed.
More than one legal entity
A Swiss parent company and an acquired subsidiary in Poland and the Czech Republic, with customers in several jurisdictions
Why it matters
Judgement develops on material that is incomplete and partly contradictory, as it is in practice. Northstar is built that way on purpose. Because modules enter its history at different points, a governance structure can be seen while it is built, when it is outgrown and when it is rebuilt.
Delivery & dates
How this module reaches you
Delivered live online, combining conceptual framing, discussion, case work and direct interaction with the trainer. In-house and contextualised delivery is available on request.
No public run is scheduled at the moment. Most modules run on request as well as on the public calendar, so tell us the timing you need.
Want this module scheduled?
We will tell you when the next run is scheduled, or run this module in-house with your own case material.
Not sure it is the right module?
Describe your context in a short message and we will tell you honestly.