Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a structured evaluation used to identify, assess, 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 review that examines how a project or system collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data. It helps organizations understand potential privacy risks and determine whether appropriate safeguards are in place.
PIAs are commonly conducted when launching new technologies, updating processing activities, or partnering with vendors that handle personal data.
They support compliance with laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by documenting risks, evaluating controls, and demonstrating accountability to regulators.
Why Privacy Impact Assessments matter
PIAs help organizations proactively identify and reduce privacy risks before they impact individuals, operations, or regulatory compliance. Conducting a PIA early in a project lifecycle also strengthens transparency, fosters trust, and ensures privacy-by-design principles are applied.
Many global regulations require organizations to document privacy considerations and maintain evidence of risk assessments. PIAs support these obligations while helping teams avoid costly remediation, data breaches, or compliance failures.
How Privacy Impact Assessments are used in practice
- Evaluating privacy risks in new or modified data processing activities
- Assessing compliance obligations under GDPR, CPRA, and other laws
- Identifying necessary technical and organizational safeguards
- Reviewing third-party vendors and subprocessors involved in data handling
- Documenting lawful bases, retention practices, and data minimization measures
- Supporting alignment with 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
OneTrust streamlines PIA workflows by automating assessments, centralizing documentation, and enabling cross-functional collaboration. The platform helps organizations identify risks, track mitigation plans, and maintain audit-ready evidence to support ongoing compliance.
[Explore Solutions →]
FAQs about Privacy Impact Assessments
A PIA evaluates privacy risks for general data processing, while a DPIA is required under certain regulations, such as GDPR, for processing activities deemed high-risk.
Privacy, legal, IT security, product, and compliance teams typically collaborate to complete a PIA, with oversight from data protection or governance leaders.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires organizations to assess privacy risks and demonstrate accountability—PIAs help document these evaluations and related safeguards.
