Legal obligation, Vital Interests and Public Task
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Legal obligation applies where you have to process the personal data to comply with the law. One example would be an employer needing to process personal data to comply with its legal obligation to provide the HMRC with employee salary details, or a court order requiring you to process personal data for a particular purpose. When processing on the basis of legal obligation, the individual has no right to erasure, data portability, or the right to object.
Vital Interests in most cases applies to health data, it would apply to processing where it is necessary to protect that individual’s life or to protect someone else’s life. If it is possible to protect the person’s vital interests in a less intrusive way, this basis would not apply. Vital interest as a lawful basis is not suitable for health data or other special category data if the individual is capable of giving consent, even where their consent is refused.
Public Task is most relevant to public authorities or any organisations that exercise official authority or carry out tasks in the public interest, although the underlying task must have a clear basis in law.
The focus is on the nature of the function, not the nature of the organisation, one example may be a Private Water Company who although they are not a public authority, carry out the functions of public administration and have legal powers to carry out utility services in the public interest.