Data Privacy in Practice

Two privacy laws. One compliance headache. One book that actually solves it.

If your organisation touches customer or employee data in both Europe and Saudi Arabia, you already know the problem: the GDPR and the Saudi PDPL are both serious, well-enforced laws - and almost nothing published treats them as one operational problem. You end up stitching together EU legal commentary, Saudi vendor blog posts, and guesswork.

Data Privacy in Practice is a hands-on guide built specifically to close that gap. It's not a legal textbook. It's the book you hand a colleague who needs to stand up a real compliance programme this quarter - not next year.

WHAT'S INSIDE

A complete GDPR deep dive - principles, lawful bases, the 8 data subject rights, DPIAs, breach response, and a step-by-step compliance roadmap

A complete Saudi PDPL deep dive - SDAIA's requirements, consent-centric obligations, cross-border transfer rules, and how PDPL actually differs from GDPR in practice

Advanced chapters on AI governance, sector-specific guidance (finance, healthcare, HR, e-commerce), a comparative look across the wider Gulf Cooperation Council, cloud and SaaS security, and privacy programme metrics

A unified compliance framework for running one programme that satisfies both regimes at once, instead of maintaining two disconnected ones

Dozens of ready-to-use templates, including a Record of Processing Activities (RoPA), a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), a Data Breach Response Plan, a DSAR response letter, a vendor due diligence checklist, full GDPR and PDPL compliance checklists, a complete sample privacy policy, and a 30-60-90 day implementation plan

A full glossary, index, and list of figures for fast reference

WHO THIS IS FOR

Founders and operations leads who need to stand up a privacy programme without a legal department. Compliance officers and DPOs expanding from one region into the other. Consultants who want a structured framework and reusable templates for client work. Legal and IT professionals who need a working understanding of both laws, fast.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rashid Hussain is a legal and technology governance professional with more than fifteen years of senior in-house experience at the intersection of corporate and technology law, cybersecurity, data privacy, regulatory compliance, and business risk at a leading IT services company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He is the author of several publications in international journals and has also authored multiple published books. He holds an MBA, an MA, and an LLB, and recently completed an MSc in Information Security and Digital Forensics from the University of East London.

His multidisciplinary academic background and extensive professional experience enable him to bridge the gap between law, technology, cybersecurity, governance, and regulatory compliance.