GDPR Breach 72h EN - personal data breach response (Art. 33-34)
Philosophy
In a breach, the clock and the documented reasoning are what matter. This skill runs a documented decision tree and produces drafts; the decision to notify and the act of sending belong to the controller/DPO. No guessing - missing inputs for the risk assessment are flagged as gaps, not filled.
Step 1 - Is it a breach, and which type
A breach is a breach of security leading to accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data (Art. 4(12)). Classify: confidentiality (disclosure/access), integrity (alteration), availability (loss/destruction). Often combined.
Step 2 - Risk assessment to rights and freedoms
Factors (EDPB 9/2022, formerly WP250): type of breach, nature/sensitivity/volume of data, ease of
identification, severity of consequences (identity theft, financial loss, discrimination, reputational
harm), special characteristics of individuals (children, patients), number of individuals affected.
Output: risk: none / present / high.
Step 3 - Notify the SA (Art. 33) - 72h COUNTER
- The clock starts on AWARENESS of the breach (not the event). Deadline: 72 hours.
- Notify unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to rights and freedoms (Art. 33(1)). No notification => justify and document.
- After the deadline => notify with reasons for the delay (Art. 33(1) sentence 2).
- Notification content (Art. 33(3)): nature of the breach (categories and approximate numbers of data subjects and records), DPO contact, likely consequences, measures taken/proposed. Phased notification is allowed (Art. 33(4)).
- The skill computes
deadline_72h(date+time) and drafts to the SA form's fields.
Step 4 - Communicate to data subjects (Art. 34)
If high risk => communicate to individuals without undue delay, in clear and plain language (Art. 34(2): description, DPO, consequences, measures). Exemptions (Art. 34(3)): appropriate safeguards (e.g. encryption rendering data unintelligible), subsequent measures eliminating the high risk, or disproportionate effort => public communication instead.
Step 5 - Breach register (Art. 33(5))
Record EVERY breach (even unreported ones) in the internal register: facts, effects, remedial action. This is the accountability evidence for the SA.
Tool - deadline calculator (deterministic, offline)
Do not count the 72h in your head. Use the script (zero dependencies, offline):
python scripts/gdpr_deadlines.py breach --from "2026-06-30T14:30"
Returns deadline_72h (ISO 8601) counted from awareness. Paste the result into the draft and register.
Governance boundary
Skill: decision tree, 72h counter, draft notification and communications, register entry. Human: approves the risk assessment, sends the SA notification and the individual communications. Sending is never automatic.
Companion
Impact assessment: [[gdpr-dpia-en]]. Polish parity: rodo-naruszenie-72h-pl.