Privacy Assessments Are Increasingly Required
We Help You Comply While Adding Value To Your Brand
In today’s data-driven world, safeguarding personal information is crucial for maintaining trust and compliance with the ever-evolving and rapidly expanding landscape of privacy laws. Privacy assessments go by differing names depending on the jurisdiction in question and the processing to be assessed, including Data Privacy Impact Assessments (DPIAs) and Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs). Regardless, the assessments are closely related to the foundational data mapping required for a privacy program, focusing on ensuring that data processing and associated privacy risks are assessed and mitigated. Aside from general benefits of PIAs and best practice motivations, privacy assessments are increasingly mandated by law, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Privacy Protection Agency Regulations of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), the Colorado Privacy Act, and Colorado’s AI Act.
Comprehensive DPIAs To Comply With An Expanding Range Of Laws
Privacy assessments are thorough evaluations of data processing that aim to identify and mitigate potential privacy risks. These assessments are particularly crucial for high-risk processing, including those involving sensitive personal information, automated decision-making, profiling, and artificial intelligence (AI), which are often subject to stringent regulatory scrutiny.
Key Aspects Of Our Privacy Assessment Services:
- Automated Decision-Making and Profiling: We assess the implications of automated decision-making processes and profiling activities to ensure they comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws. This includes evaluating how decisions are made and ensuring transparency and fairness in these processes.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assessments: As AI plays an increasingly significant role in data processing, our assessments focus on the ethical and legal use of AI. We help you understand and mitigate the privacy risks associated with AI, ensuring that your AI systems comply with current regulations in the United States and other jurisdictions, such as the European Union and its recently passed AI Act.
- Regulatory Compliance: We ensure that your data processing activities meet the specific requirements of GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, Colorado Privacy Act, and Colorado AI Law. Our expertise in these regulations helps you stay ahead of compliance obligations, avoiding costly penalties and reputational damage.
- Mitigation Strategies: Following our assessments, we provide actionable recommendations to address identified risks. Our goal is to help you implement effective privacy measures that protect personal data and enhance your overall data governance framework.
Anatomy Of A Privacy Impact Assessment
Though the exact substance of a privacy assessment may differ depending on the applicable laws and processing activity types, several key themes and components comprise a comprehensive privacy assessment, including the following:
- Data Processing Type: The starting point of a privacy assessment is to identify the data processing, including its purpose, technical functions, capabilities, and scope, so that risks can be assessed and mitigated.
- Personal Information Processed: It is essential to identify the kinds of personal information collected. It can range from the more benign, such as IP address and name, to the more sensitive, such as social security numbers and biometrics. The types of personal information collected will significantly impact the risks assessed.
- Data Mapping & Transfers: Although a data map should be a precursor to privacy assessments, as part of the assessment, data flows should be documented, including disclosures to service providers and associated data processing agreements (DPAs), as well as cross-border data transfers. This has implications for risk and compliance, such as in the context of the Data Privacy Framework (DPF).
- Privacy Notices & Disclosures: Privacy notices and related disclosures, including those for specific processing types such as AI or automated decisions, or profiling, should be considered in the assessment to ensure compliance obligations and broader transparency goals are met.
- Administrative & Technical Safeguards: Especially in relation to more sensitive or high-risk processing activities, ensuring adequate safeguards, including cybersecurity measures, is critical. For example, access controls play a crucial role, and methods for monitoring unauthorized access are of great importance.
- Privacy Rights Compliance: Specific details about how privacy rights compliance, including data subject access requests (DSARs) and deletion requests, should be outlined for processing activities.
- Applicable Jurisdictions & Related Laws: Note the jurisdictions and laws applicable to the processing activity being assessed. Some of the most common laws relevant to this context are sector-specific laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the healthcare sector, as well as comprehensive privacy laws from around the world. There are also processing-specific laws, most notably in the AI context.
- Identify Risks & Mitigate Accordingly: Risks identified during the privacy assessment process, ranging from third-party vendor risk to sensitive data disclosure and rights compliance, should be noted along with corresponding mitigation steps to minimize these risks, which should also be implemented. If the risk threshold is too high, the processing activity must not be employed. The exact threshold is highly specific and will include factoring in the processing type, risks, and laws in question.
We Help Clients Assess Privacy Risk
At RICHT, we are a privacy law firm helping clients protect personal data and maintain compliance with a dynamic regulatory landscape. Whether using an in-house, “homegrown” privacy assessment solution or one from a vendor such as OneTrust, our privacy assessment services provide you with the experience and insights necessary to navigate the complexities of data privacy law, ensuring your business is secure and compliant.
Learn How A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Lawyer Can Help
Privacy Assessment Legal Developments
- California Privacy Risk Assessments: Enforcement actions against companies like PlayOn signal a new era of strict accountability for California’s privacy mandates. Organizations must now conduct and submit annual risk assessments to the CPPA to ensure data processing safeguards are effective. OUR TAKEAWAY: Proactive documentation and annual risk reporting are now essential strategic requirements for maintaining compliance and avoiding substantial regulatory fines. Read More →
- DPIA considerations for dual-role AI providers: This article explores the complex data protection impact assessment requirements for AI developers that function as both providers and deployers of their own technology. It highlights the challenges of navigating the EU AI Act alongside the GDPR, specifically focusing on how “dual-role” entities must evaluate high-risk AI systems to ensure transparency, accountability, and the mitigation of fundamental rights risks across different stages of the AI lifecycle. Read More →
- Analyzing the CCPA’s New Risk Assessment Requirement: Starting January 1, 2026, California businesses must conduct formal risk assessments for any data processing activities that present a “significant risk” to consumer privacy, such as selling personal data or using automated decision-making technology. This new regulatory framework requires organizations to document the benefits of their processing against potential privacy harms and includes a mandatory certification process starting in 2028, signaling a major shift toward proactive accountability and preventative governance under the CCPA. Read More →
- Now it’s personal: How the new CCPA regulations impose personal accountability on designated individuals: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations introduce significant changes by requiring businesses to designate specific individuals accountable for privacy, AI, and cybersecurity practices, who must submit filings under penalty of perjury to the California Privacy Protection Agency. These designated executives must have sufficient knowledge and authority to provide accurate risk assessments and cybersecurity audit certifications. The regulations also outline rigorous requirements for review, approval, and sub-certifications to support the integrity of these submissions. Companies must carefully choose qualified individuals, update governance and insurance provisions, and allocate resources upfront to meet these new personal accountability standards, which will come into effect in phases beginning in 2026. Read More →
- A Case Study in Privacy Operations: The Maryland SPI Rule: Maryland’s Online Data Privacy Act introduces a unique approach to sensitive personal information (SPI), banning its collection, use, or sharing unless “strictly necessary” to provide a requested product or service—going beyond the consent requirements seen in other states. Organizations must update data protection assessments, data inventories, privacy notices, and third-party contracts to comply, documenting the necessity for all SPI processing and ceasing use when this standard isn’t met. This rule presents a significant operational and documentation challenge and underscores the need for risk assessments and robust privacy governance to adapt to evolving state laws. Read More →