U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Government Website

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Safely connect using HTTPS

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Topics
  3. Homeland Security Enterprise
  4. Privacy
  5. Compliance
  6. Privacy Impact Assessments

Privacy Impact Assessments

The Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a decision tool used by DHS to identify and mitigate privacy risks that notifies the public:

  • What Personally Identifiable Information (PII) DHS is collecting;
  • Why the PII is being collected; and
  • How the PII will be collected, used, accessed, shared, safeguarded and stored.

All DHS PIAs are listed (left) by DHS Program or by Component, e.g., CBP.

A PIA should accomplish three goals

  1. Ensure conformance with applicable legal, regulatory, and policy requirements for privacy;
  2. Determine the risks and effects; and
  3. Evaluate protections and alternative processes to mitigate potential privacy risks.

DHS conducts a PIA when

  • Developing or procuring any new technologies or systems that handle or collect PII.
  • Creating a new program, system, technology, or information collection that may have privacy implications.
  • Updating a system that results in new privacy risks.
  • Issuing a new or updated rulemaking that entails the collection of PII.
Last Updated: 12/01/2023
Was this page helpful?
This page was not helpful because the content