Overview
Elaboration and Developing Privacy Policy Guideline — Fifth: Personal Data Processing explains how Controllers must define and document the mechanisms used to process Personal Data in order to achieve the stated purposes of collection.
It emphasizes clarity, precision, and alignment between processing activities, stated purposes, and the stages of the Personal Data life cycle.
SDAIA's Official Text
The text below reproduces official PDPL law, regulation, or guideline issued by the Saudi Data & AI Authority, verified against the original SDAIA source. No changes or reinterpretation applied.
Fifth: Personal Data Processing
- The Controller shall clearly and precisely determine the mechanism for processing Personal Data to achieve the purpose stated in Clause (Third) above.
- To ensure that all uses are comprehensively defined, the Controller may use the main purpose as a general objective and reference basis. Accordingly, a number of specific objectives shall be determined and divided based on the stages of the data life cycle (collecting, storing, using, sharing, and destroying). At each stage, a specific objective is divided into a group of general data processing operations, and for each general operation, a specific operation shall be determined that is carried out on a specific set of data.
- The Controller may present the method of using and displaying data in a table format or in a clear text that clarifies each statement and method of usage.
Plain-Language Explanation
The explanation below is provided to help you understand the SDAIA’s legal text and does not replace or override the official PDPL law, regulation, or guideline.
1. Determination of Processing Mechanisms
2. Linking Processing to the Data Life Cycle
This provision allows the Controller to use the main purpose of processing as a general reference, while breaking it down into specific objectives across the stages of the Personal Data life cycle.
These stages include collecting, storing, using, sharing, and destroying Personal Data. At each stage, general processing operations are identified and further defined into specific operations applied to specific sets of data.
