CIPP-E IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)
Prepare effectively for your IAPP CIPP-E Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) certification with our extensive collection of free, high-quality practice questions. Each question is designed to mirror the actual exam format and objectives, complete with comprehensive answers and detailed explanations. Our materials are regularly updated for 2025, ensuring you have the most current resources to build confidence and succeed on your first attempt.
What was the main failing of Convention 108 that led to the creation of the Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC)?
The EDPB's Guidelines 8/2020 on the targeting of social media users stipulates that in order to rely on legitimate interest as a legal basis to process personal data, three tests must be passed. Which of the following is NOT one of the three tests?
As a result of the European Court of Justice’s ruling in the case of Google v. Spain, search engines outside the EEA are also likely to be subject to the Regulation’s right to be forgotten. This holds true if the activities of an EU subsidiary and its U.S. parent are what?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Brady is a computer programmer based in New Zealand who has been running his own business for two years. Brady’s business provides a low-cost suite of services to customers throughout the European Economic Area (EEA). The services are targeted towards new and aspiring small business owners. Brady’s company, called Brady Box, provides web page design services, a Social Networking Service (SNS) and consulting services that help people manage their own online stores.
Unfortunately, Brady has been receiving some complaints. A customer named Anna recently uploaded her plans for a new product onto Brady Box’s chat area, which is open to public viewing. Although she realized her mistake two weeks later and removed the document, Anna is holding Brady Box responsible for not noticing the error through regular monitoring of the website. Brady believes he should not be held liable.
Another customer, Felipe, was alarmed to discover that his personal information was transferred to a third- party contractor called Hermes Designs and worries that sensitive information regarding his business plans may be misused. Brady does not believe he violated European privacy rules. He provides a privacy notice to all of his customers explicitly stating that personal data may be transferred to specific third parties in fulfillment of a requested service. Felipe says he read the privacy notice but that it was long and complicated
Brady continues to insist that Felipe has no need to be concerned, as he can personally vouch for the integrity of Hermes Designs. In fact, Hermes Designs has taken the initiative to create sample customized banner advertisements for customers like Felipe. Brady is happy to provide a link to the example banner ads, now posted on the Hermes Designs webpage. Hermes Designs plans on following up with direct marketing to these customers.
Brady was surprised when another customer, Serge, expressed his dismay that a quotation by him is being used within a graphic collage on Brady Box’s home webpage. The quotation is attributed to Serge by first and last name. Brady, however, was not worried about any sort of litigation. He wrote back to Serge to let him know that he found the quotation within Brady Box’s Social Networking Service (SNS), as Serge himself had posted the quotation. In his response, Brady did offer to remove the quotation as a courtesy.
Despite some customer complaints, Brady’s business is flourishing. He even supplements his income through online behavioral advertising (OBA) via a third-party ad network with whom he has set clearly defined roles. Brady is pleased that, although some customers are not explicitly aware of the OBA, the advertisements contain useful products and services.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), what is the most likely reason Serge may have grounds to object to the use of his quotation?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Anna and Frank both work at Granchester University. Anna is a lawyer responsible for data protection, while Frank is a lecturer in the engineering department. The University maintains a number of types of records:
Student records, including names, student numbers, home addresses, pre-university information, university attendance and performance records, details of special educational needs and financial information.
Staff records, including autobiographical materials (such as curricula, professional contact files, student evaluations and other relevant teaching files).
Alumni records, including birthplaces, years of birth, dates of matriculation and conferrals of degrees. These records are available to former students after registering through Granchester’s Alumni portal. Department for Education records, showing how certain demographic groups (such as first-generation students) could be expected, on average, to progress. These records do not contain names or identification numbers.
Under their security policy, the University encrypts all of its personal data records in transit and at rest.
In order to improve his teaching, Frank wants to investigate how his engineering students perform in relational to Department for Education expectations. He has attended one of Anna’s data protection training courses and knows that he should use no more personal data than necessary to accomplish his goal. He creates a
program that will only export some student data: previous schools attended, grades originally obtained, grades currently obtained and first time university attended. He wants to keep the records at the individual student level. Mindful of Anna’s training, Frank runs the student numbers through an algorithm to transform them into different reference numbers. He uses the same algorithm on each occasion so that he can update each record over time.
One of Anna’s tasks is to complete the record of processing activities, as required by the GDPR. After receiving her email reminder, as required by the GDPR. After receiving her email reminder, Frank informs Anna about his performance database.
Ann explains to Frank that, as well as minimizing personal data, the University has to check that this new use
of existing data is permissible. She also suspects that, under the GDPR, a risk analysis may have to be carried out before the data processing can take place. Anna arranges to discuss this further with Frank after she has done some additional research.
Frank wants to be able to work on his analysis in his spare time, so he transfers it to his home laptop (which is not encrypted). Unfortunately, when Frank takes the laptop into the University he loses it on the train. Frank has to see Anna that day to discuss compatible processing. He knows that he needs to report security incidents, so he decides to tell Anna about his lost laptop at the same time.
Before Anna determines whether Frank’s performance database is permissible, what additional information does she need?
Select the answer below that accurately completes the following:
“The right to compensation and liability under the GDPR…
How is the retention of communications traffic data for law enforcement purposes addressed by European data protection law?
Under what circumstances would the GDPR apply to personal data that exists in physical form, such as information contained in notebooks or hard copy files?
The GDPR specifies fines that may be levied against data controllers for certain infringements. Which of the following infringements would be subject to the less severe administrative fine of up to 10 million euros (or in the case of an undertaking, up to 2% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year)?
Under the GDPR, where personal data is not obtained directly from the data subject, a controller is exempt from directly providing information about processing to the data subject if?
The GDPR's list of processor obligations regarding cloud computing includes all of the following EXCEPT?
Under what circumstances might the “soft opt-in” rule apply in relation to direct marketing?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Zandelay Fashion (‘Zandelay’) is a successful international online clothing retailer that employs approximately 650 people at its headquarters based in Dublin, Ireland. Martin is their recently appointed data protection officer, who oversees the company’s compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy legislation.
The company offers both male and female clothing lines across all age demographics, including children. In doing so, the company processes large amounts of information about such customers, including preferences and sensitive financial information such as credit card and bank account numbers.
In an aggressive bid to build revenue growth, Jerry, the CEO, tells Martin that the company is launching a new mobile app and loyalty scheme that puts significant emphasis on profiling the company’s customers by analyzing their purchases. Martin tells the CEO that: (a) the potential risks of such activities means that Zandelay needs to carry out a data protection impact assessment to assess this new venture and its privacy implications; and (b) where the results of this assessment indicate a high risk in the absence of appropriate protection measures. Zandelay may have to undertake a prior consultation with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner before implementing the app and loyalty scheme.
Jerry tells Martin that he is not happy about the prospect of having to directly engage with a supervisory authority and having to disclose details of Zandelay’s business plan and associated processing activities.
What must Zandelay provide to the supervisory authority during the prior consultation?
If a multi-national company wanted to conduct background checks on all current and potential employees, including those based in Europe, what key provision would the company have to follow?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Anna and Frank both work at Granchester University. Anna is a lawyer responsible for data protection, while Frank is a lecturer in the engineering department. The University maintains a number of types of records:
Student records, including names, student numbers, home addresses, pre-university information, university attendance and performance records, details of special educational needs and financial information.
Staff records, including autobiographical materials (such as curricula, professional contact files, student evaluations and other relevant teaching files).
Alumni records, including birthplaces, years of birth, dates of matriculation and conferrals of degrees. These records are available to former students after registering through Granchester’s Alumni portal. Department for Education records, showing how certain demographic groups (such as first-generation students) could be expected, on average, to progress. These records do not contain names or identification numbers.
Under their security policy, the University encrypts all of its personal data records in transit and at rest.
In order to improve his teaching, Frank wants to investigate how his engineering students perform in relational to Department for Education expectations. He has attended one of Anna’s data protection training courses and knows that he should use no more personal data than necessary to accomplish his goal. He creates a
program that will only export some student data: previous schools attended, grades originally obtained, grades currently obtained and first time university attended. He wants to keep the records at the individual student level. Mindful of Anna’s training, Frank runs the student numbers through an algorithm to transform them into different reference numbers. He uses the same algorithm on each occasion so that he can update each record over time.
One of Anna’s tasks is to complete the record of processing activities, as required by the GDPR. After receiving her email reminder, as required by the GDPR. After receiving her email reminder, Frank informs Anna about his performance database.
Ann explains to Frank that, as well as minimizing personal data, the University has to check that this new use of existing data is permissible. She also suspects that, under the GDPR, a risk analysis may have to be carried out before the data processing can take place. Anna arranges to discuss this further with Frank after she has
done some additional research.
Frank wants to be able to work on his analysis in his spare time, so he transfers it to his home laptop (which is not encrypted). Unfortunately, when Frank takes the laptop into the University he loses it on the train. Frank has to see Anna that day to discuss compatible processing. He knows that he needs to report security incidents, so he decides to tell Anna about his lost laptop at the same time.
Anna will find that a risk analysis is NOT necessary in this situation as long as?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Joe started the Gummy Bear Company in 2000 from his home in Vermont, USA. Today, it is a multi-billion-dollar candy company operating in every continent. All of the company’s IT servers are located in Vermont. This year Joe hires his son Ben to join the company and head up Project Big, which is a major marketing strategy to triple gross revenue in just 5 years. Ben graduated with a PhD in computer software from a top university. Ben decided to join his father’s company, but is also secretly working on launching a new global online dating website company called Ben Knows Best.
Ben is aware that the Gummy Bear Company has millions of customers and believes that many of them might also be interested in finding their perfect match. For Project Big, Ben redesigns the company’s online web portal and requires customers in the European Union and elsewhere to provide additional personal information in order to remain a customer. Project Ben begins collecting data about customers’ philosophical beliefs, political opinions and marital status.
If a customer identifies as single, Ben then copies all of that customer’s personal data onto a separate database for Ben Knows Best. Ben believes that he is not doing anything wrong, because he explicitly asks each customer to give their consent by requiring them to check a box before accepting their information. As Project Big is an important project, the company also hires a first year college student named Sam, who is studying computer science to help Ben out.
Ben calls out and Sam comes across the Ben Knows Best database. Sam is planning on going to Ireland over Spring Beak with 10 of his friends, so he copies all of the customer information of people that reside in Ireland so that he and his friends can contact people when they are in Ireland.
Joe also hires his best friend’s daughter, Alice, who just graduated from law school in the U.S., to be the company’s new General Counsel. Alice has heard about the GDPR, so she does some research on it. Alice approaches Joe and informs him that she has drafted up Binding Corporate Rules for everyone in the company to follow, as it is important for the company to have in place a legal mechanism to transfer data internally from the company’s operations in the European Union to the U.S.
Joe believes that Alice is doing a great job, and informs her that she will also be in-charge of handling a major lawsuit that has been brought against the company in federal court in the U.S. To prepare for the lawsuit, Alice instructs the company’s IT department to make copies of the computer hard drives from the entire global sales team, including the European Union, and send everything to her so that she can review everyone’s information. Alice believes that Joe will be happy that she did the first level review, as it will save the company a lot of money that would otherwise be paid to its outside law firm.
As a result of Sam’s actions, the Gummy Bear Company potentially violated Articles 33 and 34 of the GDPR and will be required to do what?
A key component of the OECD Guidelines is the “Individual Participation Principle”. What parts of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provide the closest equivalent to that principle?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Jane Stan's her new role as a Data Protection Officer (DPO) at a Malta-based company that allows anyone to buy and sell cryptocurrencies via its online platform. The company stores and processes the personal data of its customers in a dedicated data center located in Malta |EU).
People wishing to trade cryptocurrencies are required to open an online account on the platform. They then must successfully pass a KYC due diligence procedure aimed at preventing money laundering and ensuring compliance with applicable financial regulations.
The non-European customers are also required to waive all their GDPR rights by reading a disclaimer written in bold and belong a checkbox on a separate page in order to get their account approved on the platform.
The customers must likewise accept the terms of service of the platform. The terms of service also include a privacy policy section, saying, among other things, that if a
Which of the following must be a component of the anti-money-laundering data-sharing practice of the platform?
An employee of company ABCD has just noticed a memory stick containing records of client data, including their names, addresses and full contact details has disappeared. The data on the stick is unencrypted and in clear text. It is uncertain what has happened to the stick at this stage, but it likely was lost during the travel of an employee. What should the company do?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Joe is the new privacy manager for Who-R-U, a Canadian business that provides DNA analysis. The company is headquartered in Montreal, and all of its employees are located there. The company offers its services to Canadians only: Its website is in English and French, it accepts only Canadian currency, and it blocks internet traffic from outside of Canada (although this solution doesn’t prevent all non-Canadian traffic). It also declines to process orders that request the DNA report to be sent outside of Canada, and returns orders that show a non-Canadian return address.
Bob, the President of Who-R-U, thinks there is a lot of interest for the product in the EU, and the company is exploring a number of plans to expand its customer base.
The first plan, collegially called We-Track-U, will use an app to collect information about its current Canadian customer base. The expansion will allow its Canadian customers to use the app while traveling abroad. He
suggests that the company use this app to gather location information. If the plan shows promise, Bob proposes to use push notifications and text messages to encourage existing customers to pre-register for an EU version of the service. Bob calls this work plan, We-Text-U. Once the company has gathered enough pre- registrations, it will develop EU-specific content and services.
Another plan is called Customer for Life. The idea is to offer additional services through the company’s app, like storage and sharing of DNA information with other applications and medical providers. The company’s contract says that it can keep customer DNA indefinitely, and use it to offer new services and market them to customers. It also says that customers agree not to withdraw direct marketing consent. Paul, the marketing director, suggests that the company should fully exploit these provisions, and that it can work around customers’ attempts to withdraw consent because the contract invalidates them.
The final plan is to develop a brand presence in the EU. The company has already begun this process. It is in the process of purchasing the naming rights for a building in Germany, which would come with a few offices that Who-R-U executives can use while traveling internationally. The office doesn’t include any technology or infrastructure; rather, it’s simply a room with a desk and some chairs.
On a recent trip concerning the naming-rights deal, Bob’s laptop is stolen. The laptop held unencrypted DNA reports on 5,000 Who-R-U customers, all of whom are residents of Canada. The reports include customer name, birthdate, ethnicity, racial background, names of relatives, gender, and occasionally health information.
If Who-R-U adopts the We-Track-U pilot plan, why is it likely to be subject to the territorial scope of the GDPR?