PIA or DPIA: What Are They and What’s the Difference?

Today, personal data protection is very important as the amount of information shared by internet users keeps increasing daily; there is also a dire need to secure users' privacy. Hence, the importance of Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). These two assessments are designed to serve as a process through which organizations can easily track the potential impacts of their projects on privacy and data protection, as well as help their projects stay within the scope of compliance regulations and gain the trust of the relevant stakeholders. This article will describe what these two terms mean and outline their differences.

What is Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)?

A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a process used to evaluate a proposed project, information system, or existing system for its privacy risk and impact on individuals. It involves identifying privacy risks from the collection, use, and storage of personal information and suggesting mitigation measures. The overall objective of a PIA, therefore, is to protect individuals' personal information from any eventful privacy risks.

Typically, a PIA helps organizations understand how personal data will be processed, assesses the risks posed by handling these data, and establishes appropriate safeguard measures to protect the data.

Key Elements of a PIA

PIA entails various key elements. These key elements are the main components involved in conducting a Privacy Impact Assessment:

• Data Mapping: Data mapping involves identifying all personal data that will be collected, used, and stored during a project. It is instrumental in understanding the organization's data flow and how it will be handled at each stage.
• Risk Assessment: After data mapping, the next stage is the risk assessment of possible privacy risks. This involves the analysis of potential consequences of risk to a user when data gets lost, misused, or accessed without proper authorization.
• Mitigation Measures: Once these risks are identified, an organization must implement mitigation practices against them through robust security measures, anonymizing every data obtained and minimizing the amount of data the organization collects.

When to Conduct a PIA

Privacy impact assessments are conducted whenever a project involves collecting, using, and storing personal information. It is a crucial process an organization should carry out to evaluate, identify, and reduce the privacy risks that come from personal data handling on several occasions. Projects that generally require PIA include:

• Development of New Projects or Systems: This will typically involve carrying out a PIA just about the time when the organization is planning for a new project or system that may bring about the collection, storage, or processing of personal data. An example is Introducing a new customer relationship management system for managing client data. PIA is conducted early enough to have privacy embedded at the initial stage of the project or system and point out potential exposure to threats.
• Data Sharing and Transfers: PIAs are conducted when organizations plan to share personal data with third parties or transfer data across borders. For instance, if a health institution intends to share its patient data with a research institution, a PIA will help to grade the third party's privacy risk. Another example of data sharing and transfers that require PIA could be an organization developing a new mobile app that gathers users' data.
• Introduction of New Technologies: The emergence of new technologies that process personal data may raise significant privacy concerns. For instance, introducing a new surveillance system that recognizes faces will require a PIA to address potential impacts on privacy, including data retention, access controls, and sharing practices, to guarantee that policies comply with the law and public expectations.

What Is a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)?

Data Protection Impact Assessment(DPIA) is an assessment process organizations use to minimize the risk of breaches and aid data protection compliance. It is a system of identifying data protection risks and the corresponding mitigation measures. DPIA is a structured process for organizations subject to compliance based on either large-volume data or high-risk processing activities. Several specific objectives and considerations exist for conducting a data protection impact assessment. Its main aim is to ensure appropriate regulatory provisions concerning the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) principles.

Elements that Constitute A DPIA

Just like PIA, there are also key elements that constitute a DPIA. Some of the crucial aspects that relate to conducting a data protection impact assessment include:

• Data Flow Analysis: This involves mapping out data flow within an organization. This is important because there is a need to understand the pathway that data uses to move between various systems and processes to identify potential risk exposure points.
• Risk Identification: When the flow of information is well explained, any potential risks to data protection must be identified. It includes an analysis of 'how' one's data could be compromised, misused, or accessed without appropriate consent, together with the possible impacts on people that come with such risks.
• Mitigation Strategies: When a risk is discovered, the organization must develop mitigation strategies. Security measures should be enhanced, access to data should be limited, and all data should be encrypted.
• Engagement: One significant component of DPIA is stakeholder engagement. It involves consulting with data subjects, engaging employees and other stakeholders to obtain their input, and addressing the issues plaguing them.
• Documenting and Reporting: Finally, all the findings and decisions taken in the DPIA process should be documented and reported. Such documentation may serve as evidence of the data controller's commitment to data protection and be a means for proving conformity.

When to Conduct a DPIA

The data protection impact assessment is one of the tools mandated by the EU GDPR that can be used to estimate how processing activities will impact the privacy of individuals. There is a need for DPIA in various situations, especially when data processing activities are likely to result in high risks. Some key scenarios where a DPIA is necessary include:

• Larger-Scale Processing of Sensitive Data: A DPIA is mandatory when an organization intends to conduct large-scale processing involving sensitive data. Such vital information includes health data, data relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, genetic and biometric data, sexual orientation, and criminal records. For example, health providers intending to implement a new electronic health record system for handling patients' health data must conduct a DPIA to measure and mitigate probable privacy risks.
• Use of New Technologies: Implementing new technologies will significantly impact users' protection or generate new and unforeseen privacy risks. For instance, implementing IoT devices at smart homes or wearable fitness trackers that collect detailed personal data will require a DPIA. This ensures strong security measures are implemented to safeguard users' data and identify possible privacy issues.
• Automated Decision-Making and Profiling: When an organization conducts automated decision-making processes, including profiling, with legal effects or similarly essential effects on individuals, a DPIA needs to be undertaken because issues like whether automated decisions are fair and transparent are at stake. An example of this kind of project is an online credit-lending platform that uses algorithms to evaluate its customers' creditworthiness and either approve or reject their credit requests.

Key Differences Between PIA and DPIA

Both PIA and DPIA are crucial exercises for protecting privacy and data. However, they differ in scope and focus, legal requirements, and implementation processes.

Scope and Focus

A PIA primarily looks at one's project and its impact on privacy, mainly collecting, using, and storing personal information. On the contrary, a DPIA deals with safeguarding protection for data processing activities by ensuring those activities align with data protection regulations and principles.

Legal Requirements

The legal requirements for PIAs and DPIAs differ from one jurisdiction to another. For instance, the EU GDPR specifies that any processing activity that poses a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals should be preceded by a DPIA. PIAs, on the other hand, are not directly required by the GDPR. They are typically conducted to ensure privacy compliance and ensure best practices are met.

Implementation Process

Although PIA and DPIA activities share similarities, PIAs are different from DPIAs because they assess and mitigate privacy risks. In contrast, DPIAs stress the importance of data protection, compliance, and managing associated risks. PIA and DPIA follow these processes: data mapping, risk assessment, mitigation strategies, stakeholder engagement, and documentation activities.

Importance of Conducting PIAs and DPIAs

Privacy and Data Protection Impact Assessments have numerous benefits for an organization. They are of vital importance in any organization dealing with users' data. Conducting PIAs and DPIAs will help to:

• Identify and mitigate risks: Identify and address risks: Privacy and data protection risks can be identified and addressed early enough in a project so that data breaches or regulatory non-compliance are unlikely to occur. PIAs and DPIAs help organizations comply with all relevant requirements under privacy and data protection laws to avoid legal implications.
• Build Stakeholders Trust: Organizations can engender trust with their stakeholders in privacy and protection against data breaches by simply conducting PIAs and DPIAs. This includes their customers, employees, and other categories of stakeholders.

In conclusion, PIAs and DPIAs are essential assessment tools for guaranteed protection and information security in this digital age. A Privacy Impact Assessment should be carried out whenever substantial changes in how personal data is processed are brought about by new projects, technological advancements, data-sharing initiatives, or regulatory changes. While DPIA should be carried out in cases where processing activities are hazardous to users' privacy, it helps an organization to identify and mitigate privacy risks upfront by making it compliant with the provisions of GDPR and adding to the trust of data subjects.

Organizations handling data and privacy protection projects should conduct PIAs and DPIAs regularly. This will help them become proactive in meeting their privacy risks, improve the safeguarding of personally identifiable information, ensure compliance, and build trust with the users whose data they handle.