Privacy Impact Assessments

Privacy Impact Assessments, or PIAs, are the ideal tool for assessing new initiatives, whether technical, policy or legislative.

When it comes to PIAs, we can literally say: "we wrote the book".  In 2009 we were commissioned by Privacy Victoria to revise and update their PIA Guide and develop additional practical material.  Our revised PIA Guide and two accompanying practical tools - a template PIA Report and a comprehensive list of common privacy risks and mitigation strategies - were launched by the Privacy Commissioner in May 2009 to mark Privacy Awareness Week. 

In 2010 an international evaluation rated our PIA Guide amongst the best in the world, and said to "stand out as best practice".  A 2011 report for the European Commission also reviewed our PIA Guide and accompanying tools and noted their breadth of scope and application.

We believe a PIA should do more than just assess a proposed project’s likely compliance with statutory privacy principles. It should also assess the privacy control environment – the policies, procedures and structures which affect accountability for privacy compliance – and wider community concerns and perceptions about the initiative.

The PIA process describes and de-mystifies the initiative, identifies and analyses the privacy implications, and leads to recommendations for minimising privacy intrusion, and maximising privacy protection – while ensuring the initiative’s objectives are met.

In April 2009 Salinger Privacy was prequalified by AGIMO for streamlined Australian Government procurement in relation to Project Governance, and Business Case Analysis and Development.  PIAs may fit into either of these categories.