Program Overview

---

The growth of the digital economy has resulted in personal data processing becoming a global industry of enormous value. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in May 2018, aims to protect EU privacy rights and harmonise data protection law across the EU. The GDPR changes the way in which personal data must be collected, stored and processed. Given that personal data is used so widely, the GDPR impacts upon a vast number of sectors and data privacy has become an important concern for businesses, internet users, lawyers and public bodies. The Graduate Certificate in Data Protection (Law and Computing) is an interdisciplinary programme run jointly by the School of Law and Government and the School of Computing with the collaboration of the Association of Data Protection Officers (ADPO), a special interest society within the Irish Computer Society (ICS). The aim of the programme is to combine the University’s expertise in law and computing and the materials provided by the ADPO/ICS to provide students with advanced expertise in the technological and legal aspects of data protection and privacy law.