AI Governance Engineer
GitHub

Records of processing activities (ROPA)

By Updated

The GDPR Article 30 record of each processing activity: purposes, categories of data and people, recipients, transfers, retention and security 1. For AI it is best generated per processing moment from the registry and data cards, so it does not go stale.

Developed in
ch. 19, Records of processing
Chapters
ch. 19, Privacy & AI
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

One chapter of the Body of Knowledge uses the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Records of processing activities (ROPA): mentions per chapter5 mentions of the term across 1 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapter19 Privacy & AI: 5 mentions19 Privacy & AI5No mentions in the other 22 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Records of processing activities (ROPA): mentions per chapter5 mentions of the term across 1 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapter00010203040506070810111213141516171819 Privacy & AI: 5 mentions51920212223Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Records of processing activities (ROPA) per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack0No
05 Patterns0No
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map0No
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program0No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development0No
15 Deployment0No
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI5Yes
20 Existing Law0No
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents0No
  • Data card

    Structured, versioned documentation of a dataset (provenance, lawful basis, rights, composition and known limitations) maintained as code alongside the system.

Sources

  1. [1] Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) (Arts. 4(1), 4(5), 4(7), 4(8), 4(12), 4(14), 5, 6, 9, 12(3), 22, 25, 28(2) and 28(4), 30, 33, 35; Recital 26). Publications Office of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2016-04-27. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Records of processing activities (ROPA). In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/records-of-processing-activities-ropa. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026recordsofprocessingactivitiesropa,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Records of processing activities (ROPA)}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/records-of-processing-activities-ropa}
}