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Update: September 26, 2024
Published: April 9, 2024
Avoid confusion between these two important privacy assessments and learn which is best for protecting your data.
Keeping data and customer personal information (PI) secure is becoming more difficult by the day. Data privacy can feel overwhelming, from complying with new data privacy laws to navigating added risk from third-party vendors.
That’s where intent-driven evaluations like privacy impact assessments (PIAs) and data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) can find and address gaps in your privacy strategy. While both help overcome the complexities of protecting sensitive PI, their distinct focuses and legal contexts set them apart:
Understanding the differences between the two is crucial for navigating the complexities of data privacy assessments.
PIAs and DPIAs are often used interchangeably. Notable exceptions include U.S. federal government agencies, which have had a PIA requirement under the eGovernment Act of 2002, and state privacy laws.
PIAs act as an internal guide for staying ahead of privacy risks: they help you understand privacy laws and protect sensitive data better than before. As mentioned above, they help organizations determine how they collect, use, share, and maintain personal information.
In addition to filling out PIAs for many U.S. state privacy laws, many organizations use PIAs to evaluate their organization’s investment in privacy protection, including:
The U.S. E-Government Act of 2002 mandates federal agencies to conduct PIAs for information systems that collect, process, or store personal data.
A federal agency must complete a PIA when:
Similarly, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) can require PIAs under certain cases, leading agencies to be more proactive over assessments to mitigate risk. Whether it's implementing a new information system, an update to an existing one, or introducing novel data processing practices, federal agencies must undertake a PIA to assess the potential impact on individual privacy.
The goal is to ensure that government services that manage PI maintain consistent privacy protections and identify and address potential security risks. Every agency is required to provide comprehensive detail into:
In addition to federal regulations, U.S. state privacy laws are increasingly imposing PIA requirements to address heightened risk to individuals’ privacy rights. This trend underscores the importance of ensuring that robust processes align with these state-specific requirements for U.S. and global companies.
States such as California and Colorado have enacted comprehensive privacy laws that mandate PIAs when processing PI poses a "heightened risk of harm.” Other states have also implemented similar requirements:
Understanding the nuances of state data privacy laws and their respective thresholds for triggering PIAs is crucial for organizations operating in multiple jurisdictions to remain compliant and effectively protect individuals' privacy rights.
On its surface, a DPIA analyzes the privacy risks of processing, using, and storing PI—much like a PIA. However, what separates DPIAs is their legal status as a critical component of GDPR compliance. The regulation mandates DPIAs for processing any data that poses a risk to a person’s rights and freedoms or for specific large-scale processing of personal data.
In the EU, GDPR mandates DPIAs for any data processing that may result in a high risk to individuals. Specifically, the regulation identifies certain types of processing activities that are likely to result in higher risk, including:
If your organization processes high-risk data, making DPIAs a central piece of your workflow is crucial for ongoing GDPR compliance.
A DPIA is expected to:
As with a PIA, it is good practice to conduct a DPIA before any project that involves the processing of PI.
The stringent requirements imposed by PIAs and DPIAs are not arbitrary; they serve as a foundation for responsible data protection.
Whether it's cyber threats, malware, or unauthorized access, organizations must take steps to ensure long-term security. Thorough assessments act as a proactive strategy to identify, evaluate, and mitigate unavoidable risks of data processing.
Both DPIAs and PIAs can shield organizations from potential legal repercussions such as fines, severe financial penalties, and lawsuits. When data breaches are making headlines and public scrutiny over ethical PI handling is at a fever pitch, assessments also serve as a commitment to customer trust.
And of course, privacy laws and regulations are not static; they evolve in response to technological advancements and societal concerns. Accurate and updated privacy assessments ensure that your business remains adaptable and responsive to changes in the regulatory landscape.
To ensure a true, accurate evaluation of your organization’s data practices, you’ll need a well-organized and proactive approach. This will make it easier to overcome challenges throughout the assessment. Asking high-level questions can help guide preparation for a privacy assessment by clarifying key steps in the data process, such as:
Understanding each component of your existing data management is vital for successful and transparent assessments. While DPIAs and PIAs are different, they share many similarities – especially in how your company should prepare them. Start with these steps:
Your internal evaluations don’t have to be solitary. Collaborative efforts and external support can ease your organization's documentation burden.
Rather than risk missing crucial steps or slowing your business down, Osano keeps the PIA and DPIA processes fast and efficient by providing pre-built templates based on standards like ISO and NIST. You can also create custom assessments to fit your organization’s needs.
Book a demo today and learn how Osano can simplify your privacy assessments.
The GDPR contains plenty of requirements, penalties, obligations, rights, and definitions—but it doesn’t contain a specific template for DPIAs, or data protection impact assessments. So we decided to change that.
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Osano Staff is pseudonym used by team members when authorship may not be relevant. Osanians are a diverse team of free thinkers who enjoy working as part of a distributed team with the common goal of working to make a more transparent internet.
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