ISO/IEC 27701:2019

Overview

ISO/IEC 27701:2019 is a privacy extension to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002 that defines requirements and guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving a Privacy Information Management System (PIMS). The standard adds privacy-specific controls and processes for organizations acting as PII controllers and PII processors handling personally identifiable information (PII) within an ISMS. ISO/IEC 27701 is applicable to organizations of all types and sizes - public, private, government and not-for-profit.

Key Topics and Requirements

• PIMS integration with ISMS: Extends ISO/IEC 27001:2013 requirements and ISO/IEC 27002:2013 guidance to include privacy governance, risk management and control mapping.
• Organizational context & scope: Requirements for understanding context, interested parties, and defining the PIMS scope.
• Leadership and accountability: Roles, responsibilities and top-management commitment for privacy obligations.
• Risk-based planning: Address privacy risks and opportunities; set objectives and treatment measures aligned with information security risk processes.
• Support and competence: Resource allocation, staff awareness, training and documented information for privacy controls.
• Operational controls: Controls for access management, asset handling, cryptography, system development, supplier management, logging, backups and incident response - adapted for PII protection.
• Controller/Processor-specific guidance: Conditions for collection and processing, lawful basis and consent, privacy impact assessments (PIA), contracts with PII processors, records of processing activities.
• PII principal rights: Guidance on transparency, providing information to data subjects, mechanisms to modify/withdraw consent and to object to processing.
• Performance and continual improvement: Monitoring, internal audit, management review and corrective action tailored to PIMS.

Applications and Who Uses It

ISO/IEC 27701 is used to:

• Integrate privacy requirements into an existing ISMS for holistic security + privacy management.
• Demonstrate compliance with privacy-by-design principles to customers, partners and regulators.
• Standardize contracts and processes for PII controllers and PII processors, including cloud and third‑party service providers. Typical users:
• Chief Privacy Officers, Data Protection Officers (DPOs) and compliance teams
• Information security managers and ISO 27001 implementers
• Legal, HR and vendor management teams responsible for PII processing

Benefits

• Improved alignment between information security and privacy controls
• Clear responsibilities and evidence for audits and regulatory inquiries
• Scalable framework suitable for small firms to large enterprises

Related Standards

• ISO/IEC 27001:2013 - Information security management systems (ISMS)
• ISO/IEC 27002:2013 - Information security controls and guidance
• Data protection frameworks and laws (for example, GDPR and other regional privacy regulations) - ISO/IEC 27701 helps map privacy controls to regulatory obligations

Keywords: ISO/IEC 27701, PIMS, privacy information management, PII controllers, PII processors, ISO/IEC 27001 extension, data protection, privacy impact assessment, consent management, ISMS.