Controllers must conduct and document data protection assessments for certain personal-data processing activities, and must provide a requested assessment to the attorney general.
Sec. 541.105. DATA PROTECTION ASSESSMENTS. (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, if the profiling presents a reasonably foreseeable risk of: (A) unfair or deceptive treatment of or unlawful disparate impact on consumers; (B) financial, physical, or reputational injury to consumers; (C) a physical or other intrusion on the solitude or seclusion, or the private affairs or concerns, of consumers, if the intrusion would be offensive to a reasonable person; or (D) 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) A data protection assessment conducted under Subsection (a) must: (1) identify and weigh the direct or indirect benefits that may flow 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 that processing, as mitigated by safeguards that can be employed by the controller to reduce the risks; and (2) factor into the assessment: (A) the use of deidentified data; (B) the reasonable expectations of consumers; (C) the context of the processing; and (D) the relationship between the controller and the consumer whose personal data will be processed. (c) A controller shall make a data protection assessment requested under Section 541.153(b) available to the attorney general pursuant to a civil investigative demand under Section 541.153. (d) A data protection assessment is confidential and exempt from public inspection and copying under Chapter 552, Government Code. Disclosure of a data protection assessment in compliance with a request from the attorney general does 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) A data protection assessment conducted by a controller for the purpose of compliance with other laws or regulations may constitute compliance with the requirements of this section if the assessment has a reasonably comparable scope and effect. Added by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 995 (H.B. 4), Sec. 2, eff. July 1, 2024.