Art. 4 GDPR - Definitions - GDPR.eu (2025)

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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPRTable of contents

Chapter 1 (Art. 1 – 4)General provisions
- Art. 1 GDPR – Subject-matter and objectives
- Art. 2 GDPR – Material scope
- Art. 3 GDPR – Territorial scope
- Art. 4 GDPR – Definitions

Chapter 2 (Art. 5-11)Principles
- Art. 5 GDPR – Principles relating to processing of personal data
- Art. 6 GDPR – Lawfulness of processing
- Art. 7 GDPR – Conditions for consent
- Art. 8 GDPR – Conditions applicable to child’s consent in relation to information society services
- Art. 9 GDPR – Processing of special categories of personal data
- Art. 10 GDPR – Processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences
- Art. 11 GDPR – Processing which does not require identification

Chapter 3 (Art. 12-23)Rights of the data subject
- Art. 12 GDPR – Transparent information, communication and modalities for the exercise of the rights of the data subject
- Art. 13 GDPR – Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject
- Art. 14 GDPR – Information to be provided where personal data have not been obtained from the data subject
- Art. 15 GDPR – Right of access by the data subject
- Art. 16 GDPR – Right to rectification
- Art. 17 GDPR – Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’)
- Art. 18 GDPR – Right to restriction of processing
- Art. 19 GDPR – Notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing
- Art. 20 GDPR – Right to data portability
- Art. 21 GDPR – Right to object
- Art. 22 GDPR – Automated individual decision-making, including profiling
- Art. 23 GDPR – Restrictions

Chapter 4 (Art. 24-43)Controller and processor
- Art. 24 GDPR – Responsibility of the controller
- Art. 25 GDPR – Data protection by design and by default
- Art. 26 GDPR – Joint controllers
- Art. 27 GDPR – Representatives of controllers or processors not established in the Union
- Art. 28 GDPR – Processor
- Art. 29 GDPR – Processing under the authority of the controller or processor
- Art. 30 GDPR – Records of processing activities
- Art. 31 GDPR – Cooperation with the supervisory authority
- Art. 32 GDPR – Security of processing
- Art. 33 GDPR – Notification of a personal data breach to the supervisory authority
- Art. 34 GDPR – Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject
- Art. 35 GDPR – Data protection impact assessment
- Art. 36 GDPR – Prior consultation
- Art. 37 GDPR – Designation of the data protection officer
- Art. 38 GDPR – Position of the data protection officer
- Art. 39 GDPR – Tasks of the data protection officer
- Art. 40 GDPR – Codes of conduct
- Art. 41 GDPR – Monitoring of approved codes of conduct
- Art. 42 GDPR – Certification
- Art. 43 GDPR – Certification bodies

Chapter 5 (Art. 44-50)Transfers of personal data to third countries or international organisations
- Art. 44 GDPR – General principle for transfers
- Art. 45 GDPR – Transfers on the basis of an adequacy decision
- Art. 46 GDPR – Transfers subject to appropriate safeguards
- Art. 47 GDPR – Binding corporate rules
- Art. 48 GDPR – Transfers or disclosures not authorised by Union law
- Art. 49 GDPR – Derogations for specific situations
- Art. 50 GDPR – International cooperation for the protection of personal data

Chapter 6 (Art. 51-59)Independent supervisory authorities
- Art. 51 GDPR – Supervisory authority
- Art. 52 GDPR – Independence
- Art. 53 GDPR – General conditions for the members of the supervisory authority
- Art. 54 GDPR – Rules on the establishment of the supervisory authority
- Art. 55 GDPR – Competence
- Art. 56 GDPR – Competence of the lead supervisory authority
- Art. 57 GDPR – Tasks
- Art. 58 GDPR – Powers
- Art. 59 GDPR – Activity reports

Chapter 7 (Art. 60-76)Cooperation and consistency
- Art. 64 GDPR –Opinion of the Board
- Art. 62 GDPR – Joint operations of supervisory authorities
- Art. 61 GDPR – Mutual assistance
- Art. 63 GDPR – Consistency mechanism
- Art. 66 GDPR – Urgency procedure
- Art. 67 GDPR – Exchange of information
- Art. 60 GDPR – Cooperation between the lead supervisory authority and the other supervisory authorities concerned
- Art. 68 GDPR – European Data Protection Board
- Art. 69 GDPR – Independence
- Art. 70 GDPR – Tasks of the Board
- Art. 71 GDPR – Reports
- Art. 72 GDPR – Procedure
- Art. 73 GDPR – Chair
- Art. 74 GDPR – Tasks of the Chair
- Art. 75 GDPR – Secretariat
- Art. 76 GDPR – Confidentiality

Chapter 8 (Art. 77-84)Remedies, liability and penalties
- Art. 81 GDPR – Suspension of proceedings
- Art. 77 GDPR – Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority
- Art. 78 GDPR – Right to an effective judicial remedy against a supervisory authority
- Art. 79 GDPR – Right to an effective judicial remedy against a controller or processor
- Art. 80 GDPR – Representation of data subjects
- Art. 82 GDPR – Right to compensation and liability
- Art. 83 GDPR – General conditions for imposing administrative fines
- Art. 84 GDPR – Penalties

Chapter 9 (Art. 85-91)Provisions relating to specific processing situations
- Art. 85 GDPR – Processing and freedom of expression and information
- Art. 86 GDPR – Processing and public access to official documents
- Art. 87 GDPR – Processing of the national identification number
- Art. 88 GDPR – Processing in the context of employment
- Art. 89 GDPR – Safeguards and derogations relating to processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes
- Art. 90 GDPR – Obligations of secrecy
- Art. 91 GDPR – Existing data protection rules of churches and religious associations

Chapter 10 (Art. 92-93)Delegated acts and implementing acts
- Art. 92 GDPR – Exercise of the delegation
- Art. 93 GDPR – Committee procedure

Chapter 11 (Art. 94-99)Final provisions
- Art. 94 GDPR – Repeal of Directive 95/46/EC
- Art. 95 GDPR – Relationship with Directive 2002/58/EC
- Art. 96 GDPR – Relationship with previously concluded Agreements
- Art. 97 GDPR – Commission reports
- Art. 98 GDPR – Review of other Union legal acts on data protection
- Art. 99 GDPR – Entry into force and application

1011

For the purposes of this Regulation:

‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;
‘processing’ means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction;
‘restriction of processing’ means the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting their processing in the future;
‘profiling’ means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements;
‘pseudonymisation’ means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person;
‘filing system’ means any structured set of personal data which are accessible according to specific criteria, whether centralised, decentralised or dispersed on a functional or geographical basis;
‘controller’ means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; where the purposes and means of such processing are determined by Union or Member State law, the controller or the specific criteria for its nomination may be provided for by Union or Member State law;
‘processor’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller;
¹‘recipient’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or another body, to which the personal data are disclosed, whether a third party or not. ²However, public authorities which may receive personal data in the framework of a particular inquiry in accordance with Union or Member State law shall not be regarded as recipients; the processing of those data by those public authorities shall be in compliance with the applicable data protection rules according to the purposes of the processing;
‘third party’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or processor, are authorised to process personal data;
‘consent’ of the data subject means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her;
‘personal data breach’ means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed;
‘genetic data’ means personal data relating to the inherited or acquired genetic characteristics of a natural person which give unique information about the physiology or the health of that natural person and which result, in particular, from an analysis of a biological sample from the natural person in question;
‘biometric data’ means personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, which allow or confirm the unique identification of that natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data;
‘data concerning health’ means personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services, which reveal information about his or her health status;
‘main establishment’ means:
1. as regards a controller with establishments in more than one Member State, the place of its central administration in the Union, unless the decisions on the purposes and means of the processing of personal data are taken in another establishment of the controller in the Union and the latter establishment has the power to have such decisions implemented, in which case the establishment having taken such decisions is to be considered to be the main establishment;
2. as regards a processor with establishments in more than one Member State, the place of its central administration in the Union, or, if the processor has no central administration in the Union, the establishment of the processor in the Union where the main processing activities in the context of the activities of an establishment of the processor take place to the extent that the processor is subject to specific obligations under this Regulation;
‘representative’ means a natural or legal person established in the Union who, designated by the controller or processor in writing pursuant to Article 27, represents the controller or processor with regard to their respective obligations under this Regulation;
‘enterprise’ means a natural or legal person engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form, including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity;
‘group of undertakings’ means a controlling undertaking and its controlled undertakings;
‘binding corporate rules’ means personal data protection policies which are adhered to by a controller or processor established on the territory of a Member State for transfers or a set of transfers of personal data to a controller or processor in one or more third countries within a group of undertakings, or group of enterprises engaged in a joint economic activity;
‘supervisory authority’ means an independent public authority which is established by a Member State pursuant to Article 51;
‘supervisory authority concerned’ means a supervisory authority which is concerned by the processing of personal data because:
1. the controller or processor is established on the territory of the Member State of that supervisory authority;
2. data subjects residing in the Member State of that supervisory authority are substantially affected or likely to be substantially affected by the processing; or
3. a complaint has been lodged with that supervisory authority;
‘cross-border processing’ means either:
1. processing of personal data which takes place in the context of the activities of establishments in more than one Member State of a controller or processor in the Union where the controller or processor is established in more than one Member State; or
2. processing of personal data which takes place in the context of the activities of a single establishment of a controller or processor in the Union but which substantially affects or is likely to substantially affect data subjects in more than one Member State.
‘relevant and reasoned objection’ means an objection to a draft decision as to whether there is an infringement of this Regulation, or whether envisaged action in relation to the controller or processor complies with this Regulation, which clearly demonstrates the significance of the risks posed by the draft decision as regards the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects and, where applicable, the free flow of personal data within the Union;
‘information society service’ means a service as defined in point (b) of Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council (_);
‘international organisation’ means an organisation and its subordinate bodies governed by public international law, or any other body which is set up by, or on the basis of, an agreement between two or more countries.

Suitable Recitals

(15) Technology neutrality
(24) Applicable to processors not established in the Union if data subjects within the Union are profiled
(26) Not applicable to anonymous data
(28) Introduction of pseudonymisation
(29) Pseudonymisation at the same controller
(30) Online identifiers for profiling and identification
(31) Not applicable to public authorities in connection with their official tasks
(34) Genetic data
(35) Health data
(36) Determination of the main establishment
(37) Enterprise group

←Art. 3 GDPR

Art. 5 GDPR→

Art. 98 GDPR - Review of other Union legal acts on data protection
Art. 51 GDPR - Supervisory authority
Art. 31 GDPR - Cooperation with the supervisory authority

Art. 4 GDPR - Definitions - GDPR.eu (2025)

GDPRTable of contents

Suitable Recitals

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