Working Groups
Get to know the CSA working groups that create the research driving the Center of Excellence. All of CSA working groups are volunteer run, and collaborate with subject matter experts in the industry to create research that is both vendor-neutral and consensus driven. Learn more about the background, scope and objectives of each group and how you can get involved below.
Privacy Level Agreements (PLAs) Working Group
With its mission to support the creation of a transparent and trusted cloud market and in order to remove barriers to cloud adoption, the CSA decided to define baselines for compliance with data protection legislation and best practices by defining a standard format for Privacy Level Agreements (PLAs) and standards, through which a cloud service provider declares the level of privacy (personal data protection and security) that it sustains for the relevant data processing.
Background
The Cloud Security Alliance (“CSA”) published in 2013 the “Privacy Level Agreement Outline for the Sale of Cloud Services in the European Union” (PLA [V1]) and in 2015 the “Privacy Level Agreement [V2]: A Compliance Tool for Providing Cloud Services in the European Union” (PLA [V2]).
Based on the work already created by the, i.e. PLA V1 and PLA V2, the CSA PLA WG will develop “Privacy Level Agreement [V3] Code of Conduct. A Compliance Tool for Providing Cloud Services in the European Union” (PLA [V3]) to address the upcoming change to the data protection laws of the European Union and Europe Economic Area Member States to the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 also known at the GDPR.

Working Group Scope and Objectives
The working group is chartered to research in the area of privacy and data protection compliance for cloud computing services at global scale and will pursue the following three goals.
Objective 1: Define a Privacy Level Agreement Code of Practice that addresses the requirements set forth in the GDPR, based on the experience of PLA [V2].
Objective 2: Define a Governance Structure and mechanisms of adherence to the PLA CoC.
Objective 3: Participate in the implementation and management over time of the PLA CoC.
Objective 4: Monitor the legal and regularly landscape so to be able to update the PLA Code of Practice.
Objective 5: Provide expert opinion to CSA when complaints about PLA Self Attestation or Certification are submitted.
Objective 6: Provide expert opinion to CSA Open Certification Working Group on the PLA CoC third party certification scheme.
Working Group Leadership

Daniele Catteddu
Chief Technology Officer, CSA

Francoise Gilbert
CEO DataMinding Legal & Consulting

Paolo Balboni
Founding Partner of ICT Legal Consulting