As an organisation, before you begin processing personal data for a particular project or function, you may be required to undertake a data protection risk assessment (DPIA) under Article 35 of the UK GDPR. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is a structured evaluation of data processing activities, ensuring compliance with data protection principles and identifying data protection risks. It assesses everything from data receipt, storage, and access, to identifying high-risk areas such as sensitive data handling or automated processing. By conducting a systematic and extensive evaluation, the DPIA identifies compliance risks and privacy concerns, providing actionable steps to mitigate issues before they develop.
Ask anyone who has had to draft one before, a DPIA is often an extensive and daunting document, particularly for those who are not data privacy professionals. That’s where we come in, we specialise in guiding organisations through the entire DPIA process, ensuring that security measures and data protection rights are addressed. Our experienced team of privacy professionals conducts a thorough impact assessment of projects, ensuring risks are identified early, before deployment.
We also offer consultation with supervisory authorities if significant data protection issues remain unmitigated. By working with us, you ensure your project follows good practice and demonstrates compliance with data protection laws, offering peace of mind when processing data, especially with new technologies or high-risk scenarios.
We were commissioned by an organisation to undertake a DPIA for their main data platform, as well as undertaking a DPIA into each specific third party they utilised for the platform, where there were distinct functions. The organisation was under external pressure to produce these DPIAs as soon as possible, so we had to work swiftly to produce a suite of comprehensive due diligence documents in a short amount of time.
In our reviews, we were able to alleviate external pressures on data protection risks by demonstrating the clear and comprehensive review in the main platform and third parties. We produced consistent and clear data flow maps to explain how the data was being processed by each party across a data life cycle. We were also able to identify a series of risks on the data platform and provided key mitigation steps of how the risks could be mitigated to reduce the risks to the rights and freedoms of data subjects. This allowed the project to continue as planned, with the organisation having key insights into the risks of their project and how they could avoid them. This also gave assurance to external organisations involved in the project.
Due to the thoroughness of our review, we are commissioned to review and update the DPIAs on a regular basis when there are any changes in third parties or in the platform as a whole.
We endeavour to produce a comprehensive DPIA whilst taking up as little of your time as we can. We do the heavy lifting, allowing you to focus on other areas of the business.
Get in touch with us today to book a free 30 minute consultation and find out how we can support you achieve compliance.
We provide a full data protection and information governance consultancy service to all our clients who engage with us. We provide flexible packages and services to make sure that you only pay for what you need, so you aren’t paying for unnecessary services. Whatever you and your organisation need, we are here to help.
