                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DATA PROTECTION ASSESSMENTS (§ 59.1-580)

A. A controller shall conduct and document a data protection assessment of each
of the following processing activities involving personal data:

   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. Each controller that offers any online service, product, or feature directed
to consumers whom such controller has actual knowledge are children shall
conduct a data protection assessment for such online service, product, or
feature that addresses (i) the purpose of such online service, product, or
feature; (ii) the categories of known children&#8217;s personal data that such
online service, product, or feature processes; and (iii) the purposes for which
such controller processes known children&#8217;s personal data with respect to
such online service, product, or feature.

C. Data protection assessments conducted pursuant to this section 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.

D. 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 &#xA7; 59.1-578. Data protection assessments shall
be confidential and exempt from public inspection and copying under the Virginia
Freedom of Information Act (&#xA7; 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.

E. A single data protection assessment may address a comparable set of
processing operations that include similar activities.

F. 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.

G. Data protection assessment requirements shall apply to processing activities
created or generated after January 1, 2023, and are not retroactive.

HISTORY: 2021, Sp. Sess. I, cc. 35, 36; 2024, cc. 840, 844.