Map privacy risks before a project, rollout or process change

It is usually worth getting one when your business is launching a new product, changing how customer information moves through your systems, onboarding a new provider, or starting to handle more sensitive information. A privacy impact assessment plan can also be helpful before expanding into a new channel or introducing internal processes that change who can access personal information. The aim is to spot privacy issues early, document the main risks, and set out practical actions. It helps you assess and reduce risk, but it focuses on helping you prepare clearly and understand the practical risks in every scenario.

Common issues include collecting more personal information than is really needed, unclear notices to customers or staff, weak internal access controls, uncertain vendor arrangements, and gaps in how information is stored, shared or deleted. Cross-border handling, sensitive information, and inconsistent practices between teams can also create problems. We review the way your business actually operates and turn those findings into a written plan. That matters because the right advice depends on how your business collects, uses and shares information in practice, not just what a policy says on paper.

The service usually includes a lawyer consultation, review of the information you provide about your data handling, identification of the main privacy risk areas, and a written privacy impact assessment plan. That plan typically outlines the relevant data flows, highlights where legal or operational issues may arise, and suggests practical next steps for addressing them. It is broader than a narrow consultation because you receive a structured output you can use internally. It is not the same as technical security work, software configuration, or ongoing privacy management after the plan is delivered.

This page is for broader privacy assessment work across ordinary business operations, products and process changes. An AI-specific assessment is narrower and usually digs into issues linked to model inputs, outputs, automated decision-making, training data and vendor roles in AI systems. If your project is not limited to AI, or your privacy questions sit across several business functions, a broader privacy impact assessment plan may be the better fit. We can help identify which service makes sense based on the type of information involved and how the project works in practice.

It helps to have a practical picture of what information you collect, where it comes from, who can access it, which systems or providers are involved, and how long it is kept. Existing privacy policies, consent wording, onboarding flows, internal process notes and vendor arrangements can also be useful. You do not need perfect documentation before getting started. If some parts are still developing, we can work from the current setup and planned changes. The more accurately your business practices are described, the more useful and realistic the assessment plan will be.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Privacy Impact Assessment Plan service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.