identify everyone who may be identifiable
1. Regulatory Concept & Core Standards
In this video we will work through a concrete decision: identify everyone who may be identifiable. The aim is to explain the criterion used and apply it to a workplace situation. We will start with the concept, move to the procedure and finish with a case to solve. The GDPR applies alongside national reporting provisions. Collection, access and retention need purpose and legal basis. Protection also concerns people named in the report, without removing lawful confidentiality safeguards.
A file contains data about reporting and concerned people, witnesses and third parties. Health or offence data need particular legal assessment. A case identifier does not automatically anonymise data.
Apply the following rule: Part II covers the listed EU-law fields, EU financial interests and the internal market. Law 148(I)/2025 adds specified breaches of EU restrictive measures in section 4(1)(d). Part III covers national offences, failures to comply with legal obligations, risks to safety or health and environmental harm. Apply the exclusions concerning defence/security, classified information, legal and medical confidentiality and judicial or criminal procedures.
2. Practical Implementation & Procedure
Map fields, attachments, messages and technical records. Identify purposes, roles and bases. Check special categories and restrictions. Before moving on, turn this procedure into a sequence you could explain to a colleague. Identify the first check, the action that depends on its outcome and the record that allows the decision to be reconstructed. Follow the sequence on screen and identify the point where an error would change the result.
Consider how a colleague taking over tomorrow would understand the decision. Identify the verified information and its source, who is authorised to decide and who checks the result. The record should connect the decision to the material actually used rather than repeat the whole file. State critical gaps and assign a specific action to resolve them. This makes continuity independent of one person’s memory. Apply the proposed organisational steps within legal powers. In the case, distinguish observation, conclusion and hypothesis. An observation describes available evidence, a conclusion explains what can reasonably be inferred and a hypothesis still needs checking. Do not infer motives merely from unusual behaviour. Identify which further information could change the decision and whether it can be obtained lawfully and proportionately. Incomplete knowledge justifies neither certainty of guilt nor indifference to an actual risk.
3. Case Study & Compliance Action
An attachment contains unrelated health information about a third party, noticed during initial assessment. Now read the case carefully. Separate established facts from information you would still need to confirm. Do not add motives or events that have not been described. This distinction matters when choosing a response proportionate to the information available.
The exercise is as follows: Is every attachment necessarily part of the required file? Choose an answer and write one sentence explaining it. During the pause, compare your choice with the criteria we have just considered. Also think about the material you would retain to explain the decision later.
No. Assess relevance and lawful processing and apply national requirements for unnecessary data.
One mistake to avoid is: treating everything received as necessary.
Now apply the national rule to a second decision. A report is automatically called protected because it includes the word corruption. What check is missing?
Assess the facts, work-related context and national protection conditions. The form label helps organise information but does not decide legal coverage. If the case is outside scope, identify an appropriate procedure without unnecessary disclosure.