Understanding ROPAs And PIIAs And Why Your Organisation Needs Both

As organisations continue to process increasing volumes of personal information, understanding how data is processed within the organisation through systems, teams and third parties is essential. A tool that assists organisations in keeping track of their data flows is a record of processing activities, often referred to as a "ROPA" or data mapping. For the purposes of this article, we will use the term ROPA.

A ROPA is an inventory of how an organisation processes personal information and provides an overview of how personal information is processed and how it flows (hence also called data mapping). A ROPA forms part of the foundation for an effective data protection compliance programme. On the other hand, a personal information impact assessment ("PIIA") is a more in-depth analysis of any processing activity that may pose a high risk to data subjects. Read more about PIIAs here.