Special Categories of Personal Data

Special categories of personal data include sensitive personal data, such as biometric and genetic information that can be processed to identify a person.

Personal data that relates to criminal offences and convictions aren’t included, but there are separate processing safeguards in place. GDPR Article 10 will give you more information on this.

A user-friendly guide to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Some of the personal data that companies process is more sensitive and needs higher protection. Under GDPR these are known as ‘special categories of personal data’, and includes information about a person’s:

  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Political views
  • Religion, spiritual or philosophical beliefs
  • Biometric data for ID purposes
  • Health data
  • Sex life data
  • Sexual orientation
  • Genetic data