Privacy Impact Assessments for Adtech & Marketing
Assess and document privacy risks in your programs and systems across Adtech & Marketing.
Advertising and marketing technology runs on personal data — behavioural signals, location histories, purchase intent, inferred demographics, and device identifiers stitched together across thousands of touchpoints. The commercial model depends on that data being current and acted on quickly. The regulatory model increasingly demands that it be collected with meaningful consent, used only for the purposes individuals agreed to, and deleted when they say so. Closing the gap between those two realities is what a Privacy Impact Assessment does.
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation sets strict express-consent requirements for commercial electronic messages, and PIPEDA's consent obligations apply to the data collection powering audience targeting and retargeting. Where Québec residents are in scope, Law 25 raises the bar further — requiring PIAs before deploying or modifying systems that handle personal information. The regulatory exposure in adtech does not come only from Canadian law: cross-border data flows to US and EU ad platforms mean your data practices face scrutiny from multiple directions simultaneously.
The risks in this sector are specific and compounding. Third-party pixels and tracking scripts can transfer data to dozens of external parties before anyone on your team is aware. Consent banners that technically capture a click but do not reflect actual data use create liability rather than protection. Lookalike audiences and probabilistic matching depend on inferred attributes individuals never knowingly provided — a category of processing that regulators are examining with increasing attention.
Privacy Horizon's PIA starts by mapping every data flow: from first collection, through your internal systems, across your tag management and demand-side platform integrations, to every third party that touches that data before and after activation. We identify consent scope mismatches, assess where opt-out and deletion mechanisms fail under real-world conditions, and flag where cross-border transfers lack adequate safeguards. The output is a documented risk register and mitigation plan your legal and technical teams can act on — built to hold up under regulatory scrutiny, not just to satisfy an internal checklist.
Why Privacy Impact Assessment matters for Adtech & Marketing
Behavioural advertising operates at a scale where even modest consent or transparency gaps affect a large number of individuals — and regulators across Canada have demonstrated they will investigate systems where the gap between stated practices and actual data flows is material. A Privacy Impact Assessment gives adtech and marketing organizations a structured method to identify those gaps before a complaint surfaces, an audit begins, or a breach exposes what was never properly governed. It is also the foundational document that demonstrates accountability: that you assessed the risks, understood them, and took proportionate steps to address them.
Adtech and marketing firms collect, profile, and monetize personal data at scale — behavioural signals, location history, purchase intent, and inferred demographics across thousands of touchpoints. Canada's anti-spam and privacy laws place strict consent and transparency obligations on this sector, and growing provincial opt-out rights are reshaping how audiences can be targeted. Cross-border data flows to US and EU ad platforms add significant regulatory complexity.
Relevant frameworks: PIPEDA / provincial private-sector privacy laws, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 Type II
Our approach for Adtech & Marketing
We begin by inventorying every data source your marketing operations touch — owned properties, third-party integrations, purchased data, and enrichment services — and building a complete data flow map that reflects how information actually moves, not how your privacy policy describes it. From that map, we conduct a structured risk assessment against PIPEDA, CASL, and applicable provincial requirements. We identify consent-scope mismatches, assess the adequacy of your data processing agreements with ad platform partners, and evaluate your opt-out and deletion mechanisms under real operating conditions. Our deliverable is regulator-ready documentation — findings, risk ratings, and a prioritized mitigation plan — written for both legal and technical audiences.
What Privacy Impact Assessment includes
A privacy impact assessment (PIA) identifies and mitigates privacy risks before they become problems — and produces the documentation regulators and partners expect.
Data Flow Mapping
Understand how personal information moves through your systems.
Risk Identification
Surface privacy risks early, before launch.
Mitigation Planning
Concrete steps to reduce identified risks.
Regulator-Ready Documentation
Defensible records of your privacy diligence.
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