Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a structured evaluation used to identify and mitigate privacy risks in projects, systems, or processes that involve personal data.
What is a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)?
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a formal process that examines how a project or system collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data. It helps organizations understand the privacy implications of new initiatives and ensures appropriate safeguards are in place.
PIAs are commonly used when launching new technologies, processing activities, or services that involve personal information. They support compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other global privacy frameworks.
Organizations use PIAs to document risks, evaluate controls, and demonstrate accountability to regulators and stakeholders.
Why Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) matter
PIAs help organizations proactively identify privacy risks before they impact individuals, operations, or regulatory compliance. By conducting a PIA early in a project lifecycle, teams can design safeguards into systems and processes, improving trust and reducing costly remediation.
Regulatory expectations continue to expand globally, with privacy laws requiring demonstrable accountability and risk assessments. PIAs support these obligations by providing clear documentation of decisions, controls, and privacy-by-design practices.
PIAs also enhance collaboration across privacy, legal, security, and product teams, ensuring that personal data is handled responsibly and transparently.
How Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) are used in practice
- Evaluating privacy risks in new products, systems, or data processing activities
- Supporting compliance with GDPR, CPRA, and other global privacy laws
- Identifying necessary technical and organizational safeguards
- Assessing data sharing with vendors or third parties
- Documenting lawful bases, data minimization practices, and retention policies
- Aligning with broader Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) for high-risk processing
Related laws & standards
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)
- Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)
- SOC 2
- India DPDPA
How OneTrust helps with Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs)
OneTrust helps organizations streamline PIA workflows by automating assessments, centralizing documentation, and enabling cross-team collaboration. The platform supports risk identification, mitigation planning, and audit-ready reporting, ensuring privacy-by-design practices across projects.
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FAQs about Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs)
A PIA evaluates privacy risks for general data processing, while a DPIA is required for high-risk activities under regulations like GDPR.
Privacy teams, legal, security, product managers, and project owners collaborate to complete a PIA, with oversight from data protection or compliance leaders.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires organizations to assess privacy risks and demonstrate accountability—PIAs help document these evaluations and controls.
