In organising an internship, is the employer a data controller or a processor to whom personal data have been entrusted for processing?
ANSWER
An employer employing a person on an internship arranged through the Labour Office is a data controller of the intern's personal data, not a processor. This follows from the fact that, once the workplace receives the intern's personal data, it will process them for its own processing purposes and in its own manner. Its own purposes include, among other things, recording entries and exits, recording internship hours, granting authorisations to process personal data if the intern will have access to them, and complying with occupational health and safety rules and the Labour Code.
This position was recently adopted by the Personal Data Protection Office, which can be consulted at the following links:
