For trainees and junior lawyers · English law

Data Protection

A software company runs the rota app for a group of care homes. You act for the software company.

How a software supplier handles its customers’ data, taught through one agreement and its file, clause by clause.

The staff room of a care home on an early morning in March 2027, drawn straight on to its back wall. On the left a bank of staff lockers with a bench in front of them, then a window onto the home's garden: a hedge, a tree, a garden bench. On a row of hooks hang two tabards and a cardigan. On the right a noticeboard of blank notes; in its corner the old paper rota, a grid of empty cells, is still pinned up, just in case. By the door to the corridor the app's clock-in tablet is fixed to the wall, its screen showing a few grey bars and one round button. Its one cable, drawn in copper, loops down the wall and runs into it at a small plate: the home's data leaving for the software supplier. A care worker, seen from behind, stands in front of the noticeboard with a phone in hand. No faces and no words.

You will be able to:

  • Read a data processing agreement and say what each clause does
  • Explain who decides about the data, and who answers
  • Handle a request, a new supplier and a breach on time

10 chapters with tests · a final exam · a certificate · about 3 hours in all · published 20 October 2026

Start Chapter 1

Chapters

Module 1

Roles and Rules

Module 2

The Agreement

Module 3

Data Abroad and Requests

Module 4

When Things Go Wrong

One case runs through every chapter: a rota app supplier works for a group of care homes. Read the full Agreement →

Glossary: every term in plain English · Final exam: 30 questions, open book