ISO (the International Organisation for Standardisation) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialised system for worldwide standardisation. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organisation to deal with particular fields of technical activity. In the field of information technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.

Cloud service providers who process Personally Identifiable Information (PII) under contract to their customers need to operate their services in ways that allow both parties to meet the requirements of applicable legislation and regulations covering the protection of PII.

PII is sometimes referred to as personal data or personal information. A public cloud service provider is a “PII processor” when it processes PII for and according to the instructions of a cloud service customer. 

This standard was created to help the public cloud service provider to comply with applicable obligations when acting as a PII processor, enable the public cloud PII processor to be transparent in relevant matters, assist the cloud service customer and the public cloud PII processor in entering into a contractual agreement and provide cloud service customers with a mechanism for exercising audit and compliance rights and responsibilities.

There are three main requirements an organisation must identify for the protection of PII:

1. Legal, Statutory, Regulatory and Contractual Requirements

2. Risks Assessment

3. Corporate policies