GDPR Article 13: information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject

Article 13 is the provision your privacy notice exists to satisfy. It is a list, it is closed, and the timing is fixed: the information is owed at the time the personal data are obtained, not when someone thinks to ask.

The six items in Article 13(1)

Where personal data relating to a data subject are collected from the data subject, the controller shall, at the time when personal data are obtained, provide the data subject with all of the following information:

(a) the identity and the contact details of the controller and, where applicable, of the controller's representative;

(b) the contact details of the data protection officer, where applicable;

(c) the purposes of the processing for which the personal data are intended as well as the legal basis for the processing;

(d) where the processing is based on point (f) of Article 6(1), the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party;

(e) the recipients or categories of recipients of the personal data, if any;

(f) where applicable, the fact that the controller intends to transfer personal data to a third country or international organisation and the existence or absence of an adequacy decision by the Commission, or in the case of transfers referred to in Article 46 or 47, or the second subparagraph of Article 49(1), reference to the appropriate or suitable safeguards and the means by which to obtain a copy of them or where they have been made available.

Point (c) is the one that catches controllers who write purposes but not bases. The Article asks for both, tied together, which is why a notice that lists five purposes and mentions consent once is usually incomplete.

The six further items in Article 13(2)

Article 13(2) adds information "necessary to ensure fair and transparent processing", again owed at the time the data are obtained:

(a) the period for which the personal data will be stored, or if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period;

(b) the existence of the right to request from the controller access to and rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing concerning the data subject or to object to processing as well as the right to data portability;

(c) where the processing is based on point (a) of Article 6(1) or point (a) of Article 9(2), the existence of the right to withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal;

(d) the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority;

(e) whether the provision of personal data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract, as well as whether the data subject is obliged to provide the personal data and of the possible consequences of failure to provide such data;

(f) the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, referred to in Article 22(1) and (4) and, at least in those cases, meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject.

Point (a) is worth reading carefully. "Or if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period" is a real alternative, not an escape hatch. A notice that says nothing about retention satisfies neither branch.

Further processing and the single exemption

Article 13(3) covers purpose creep. Where the controller intends to further process the personal data for a purpose other than that for which the personal data were collected, the controller shall provide the data subject, prior to that further processing, with information on that other purpose and with any relevant further information as referred to in paragraph 2. The information comes before the new processing, not after it.

Article 13(4) is the only exemption: paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply where and in so far as the data subject already has the information. The phrase "in so far as" makes this granular. It excuses the items the data subject already has, not the notice as a whole.

How Article 13 relates to Article 12

Article 13 says what to provide. Article 12 says how: in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. A complete Article 13 list written in unreadable prose fails Article 12, and a readable notice missing the retention period fails Article 13. Both have to hold at once, which is why the privacy notice is usually the artefact that carries them together.

Article 13(1)(c) also depends on work you have already done elsewhere. You cannot state a legal basis you have not chosen, so Article 6 lawful basis comes first, and your records of processing under Article 30 are usually where the purposes, recipients and retention periods are actually held.

Next step

If you collect personal data from people in the EU through a form, an account or an app, the free 2-minute Obligation Scan checks whether the GDPR reaches you and lists the transparency duties, including Article 13, that attach to what you collect. The GDPR compliance hub puts the notice duties in order with the rest.