Virginia Code 59.1-580: (Effective January 1, 2023) Data protection assessments
A. A controller shall conduct and document a data protection assessment of each of the following processing activities involving personal data:
Terms Used In Virginia Code 59.1-580
- Consumer: means a natural person who is a resident of the Commonwealth acting only in an individual or household context. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- Controller: means the natural or legal person that, alone or jointly with others, determines the purpose and means of processing personal data. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- De-identified data: means data that cannot reasonably be linked to an identified or identifiable natural person, or a device linked to such person. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
- Personal data: means any information that is linked or reasonably linkable to an identified or identifiable natural person. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- processing: means any operation or set of operations performed, whether by manual or automated means, on personal data or on sets of personal data, such as the collection, use, storage, disclosure, analysis, deletion, or modification of personal data. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- Profiling: means any form of automated processing performed on personal data to evaluate, analyze, or predict personal aspects related to an identified or identifiable natural person's economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- Sale of personal data: means the exchange of personal data for monetary consideration by the controller to a third party. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- Sensitive data: means a category of personal data that includes:
1. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
- Targeted advertising: means displaying advertisements to a consumer where the advertisement is selected based on personal data obtained from that consumer's activities over time and across nonaffiliated websites or online applications to predict such consumer's preferences or interests. See Virginia Code 59.1-575
1. The processing of personal data for purposes of targeted advertising;
2. The sale of personal data;
3. The processing of personal data for purposes of profiling, where such profiling presents a reasonably foreseeable risk of (i) unfair or deceptive treatment of, or unlawful disparate impact on, consumers; (ii) financial, physical, or reputational injury to consumers; (iii) a physical or other intrusion upon the solitude or seclusion, or the private affairs or concerns, of consumers, where such intrusion would be offensive to a reasonable person; or (iv) other substantial injury to consumers;
4. The processing of sensitive data; and
5. Any processing activities involving personal data that present a heightened risk of harm to consumers.
B. Data protection assessments conducted pursuant to subsection A shall identify and weigh the benefits that may flow, directly and indirectly, from the processing to the controller, the consumer, other stakeholders, and the public against the potential risks to the rights of the consumer associated with such processing, as mitigated by safeguards that can be employed by the controller to reduce such risks. The use of de-identified data and the reasonable expectations of consumers, as well as the context of the processing and the relationship between the controller and the consumer whose personal data will be processed, shall be factored into this assessment by the controller.
C. The Attorney General may request, pursuant to a civil investigative demand, that a controller disclose any data protection assessment that is relevant to an investigation conducted by the Attorney General, and the controller shall make the data protection assessment available to the Attorney General. The Attorney General may evaluate the data protection assessment for compliance with the responsibilities set forth in § 59.1-578. Data protection assessments shall be confidential and exempt from public inspection and copying under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (§ 2.2-3700 et seq.). The disclosure of a data protection assessment pursuant to a request from the Attorney General shall not constitute a waiver of attorney-client privilege or work product protection with respect to the assessment and any information contained in the assessment.
D. A single data protection assessment may address a comparable set of processing operations that include similar activities.
E. Data protection assessments conducted by a controller for the purpose of compliance with other laws or regulations may comply under this section if the assessments have a reasonably comparable scope and effect.
F. Data protection assessment requirements shall apply to processing activities created or generated after January 1, 2023, and are not retroactive.