Privacy Impact
Assessment.
Australian Privacy Principles
Evaluate privacy risks and check your alignment with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) — using a clear, structured template built for real projects.
Privacy Impact Assessment Template: privacy risk, assessed properly.
Specifically, a structured PIA helps you surface privacy risks early, align with the APPs, and demonstrate accountability to regulators, customers, and your board.
APP-Aligned Structure
Walk through each of the 13 Australian Privacy Principles with prompts, evidence fields, and risk ratings built in.
Risk You Can Act On
Identify, rate, and treat privacy risks with a repeatable framework — no more ad-hoc judgement calls on personal information.
Audit-Ready Evidence
Produce a documented assessment you can share with the OAIC, auditors, partners, or your leadership team.
What is a privacy impact assessment?
A privacy impact assessment (PIA) is a structured process for identifying how a project, system or change affects the privacy of individuals, and for deciding how to reduce those risks before they cause harm.
In Australia, the OAIC recommends a privacy impact assessment for any project that handles personal information, and Australian Government agencies must complete one for high privacy risk projects under the Privacy (Australian Government Agencies – Governance) APP Code. Our privacy impact assessment template follows the same approach, so the finished document works for regulators, boards and customers. Read the OAIC's guide to undertaking privacy impact assessments for the full detail.
When do you need a privacy impact assessment?
- Launching a new system, app or website that collects personal information
- Changing how existing personal information is used, stored or shared
- Sending data to a third party, a cloud provider or overseas
- Introducing new technology such as AI, biometrics or large-scale analytics
What a privacy impact assessment covers
- Project description and personal information flows
- Assessment against each Australian Privacy Principle (APP)
- Privacy risk analysis with clear ratings
- Recommended mitigations, owners and timeframes
- Sign-off and ongoing monitoring
Common privacy impact assessment questions
What is the difference between a PIA and a DPIA?
A privacy impact assessment (PIA) is the general privacy risk assessment used under the Australian Privacy Act. A data protection impact assessment (DPIA) is the specific assessment that GDPR Article 35 requires for high-risk processing. Most of the content overlaps, so one well-built document can often serve both.
Is a privacy impact assessment mandatory in Australia?
For Australian Government agencies, a PIA is mandatory for high privacy risk projects. For private organisations it is not generally required by law, but the OAIC recommends one for any project that involves personal information, and it is a clear way to show you took reasonable steps under APP 1.
How long does a privacy impact assessment take?
It depends on scope. A small project with one system can be assessed in days, while a complex project across several systems and third parties can take several weeks. Starting early, before design decisions are locked in, keeps the effort and cost lower.
When should a privacy impact assessment be done?
As early as possible, before design decisions are locked in. Starting a privacy impact assessment at the planning stage lets you change the project to reduce privacy risk, which is cheaper than adding controls after launch. The OAIC recommends one for any project that involves personal information.
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When a privacy impact assessment becomes a DPIA
A privacy impact assessment and a DPIA ask the same underlying question, but they're triggered differently and that distinction matters if your organisation handles EU data.
A privacy impact assessment under the Australian Privacy Act is a general-purpose tool the OAIC recommends for any project touching personal information. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) under GDPR Article 35 is mandatory, not optional, for specific high-risk processing activities — large-scale profiling, systematic monitoring, or processing special categories of data. If your organisation processes any EU personal data, check whether a project trips the GDPR threshold before assuming a standard privacy impact assessment template is enough.
Signs a project needs the stricter DPIA treatment
- Large-scale processing of sensitive categories (health, biometric, criminal history)
- Systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area
- Automated decision-making with legal or similarly significant effects on individuals
- Combining datasets from different sources in a way not reasonably expected by the people involved
Not sure where to start?
Alternatively, our consultants can run a full Privacy Impact Assessment for you, or review your draft before you finalise it — from scoping through to remediation.
Looking for the process behind the template? Read our privacy impact assessment guide for when and how to run one.