Governance
Legitimate interests assessment
Formal definition
Legitimate interests assessment is an assurance process in governance focused on managing personal data lawfully with clear risk controls before high-impact processing begins.
What this actually means for you
Trustees and governance leads should treat Legitimate interests assessment as an operating standard: document lawful basis, retention, and safeguards before changing forms, profiling, or integrations, then review it before board and committee decisions.
Example: In a live quarterly cycle, Legitimate interests assessment is applied like this: before enabling a new scoring model, the team completes a DPIA and logs mitigation actions with owners. The team then records the decision trail in evidence logs, findings summaries, and remediation actions.
Related guides and whitepapers
Read deeper guidance and implementation detail connected to this term.
A grounded guide to working well with lived experience advisors in UK charities: paid, supported, respected, given real authority. Practical practice and policy.
A practical succession planning guide for UK charity chief executives, chairs, trustees and specialists. Proportionate, written down, refreshed annually.
How to write a UK charity EDI policy that staff and trustees actually use: structure, length, operational hooks, and the governance that keeps it alive.
A grounded sustainability guide for small UK charities: where to start, what is proportionate, what counts as greenwashing, and the governance that makes it real.