Processing Purpose Library

The empty field purpose of processing in the Art. 30 record is a classic stumbling block. What do you write there? And which legal basis under Art. 6 fits it? Consent, contract, legal obligation or legitimate interest - the choice governs the whole processing operation. The Processing Purpose Library takes the guesswork off your hands and delivers ready-made, cleanly worded building blocks.

Over 30 common processing purposes are recorded and sorted by area: HR, customers, finance, IT and marketing. From payroll through customer administration and bookkeeping to the newsletter and access logging - for the typical cases of business life you find a ready-made entry you can adopt directly or use as a template.

Each purpose comes with the matching legal basis under Art. 6 - with a plain-language explanation of why exactly this one applies. Anyone who has ever pondered whether a processing operation rests on contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) or legitimate interest ((f)) knows how helpful a reasoned classification is. Special data categories under Art. 9 are specially marked because they are subject to stricter rules.

Every entry delivers more than just the purpose: the typical retention period, the data categories and groups of people involved, concrete examples from practice and the reference to the legal source. That way you can transfer an entry straight into your processing record without researching every field individually. Related purposes are linked so you quickly find the matching counterpart.

Different views make the library a tool rather than a mere list: browsing and filtering by area, a detail view per purpose, an overview of retention periods and a statistic showing how the purposes are distributed across areas and legal bases. You mark favourites for quick access, and individual entries can be copied or exported directly.

The library is a carefully prepared reference and wording aid that takes work off your hands and gives orientation. But it makes no legally binding statement about which purpose and legal basis are correct in your specific case - that depends on the individual case. Use the entries as a well-founded starting point and, if in doubt, have the classification confirmed by a data protection professional.