AI Governance in Education

Free resource

The DPIA screening tool

A plain-English tool that runs in your browser, for any AI or digital product you’re thinking of buying. Tell me who you are, and it’s yours to keep.

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Assessing an AI tool before you buy it shouldn’t need a law degree. I’ve built this screening tool to ask the right questions in plain English, then tell you whether your answers are detailed enough to send to your Data Protection Officer for sign-off.

What it does

The AI & Digital Tool DPIA Screening Tool walks you, section by section, through everything a Data Protection Impact Assessment needs to cover:

  • Purpose and description — including new AI features inside tools you already use.
  • Whose personal information the tool touches, and what can be typed, pasted or uploaded into it.
  • Scale and volume of data.
  • Roles (controller vs processor), the contract, sub-processors and international transfers.
  • Lawful basis and retention.
  • Automated decisions, biometrics and emotion inference.
  • What the supplier does with the data — AI training, product development, analytics and logs.

Each section has an i button that explains what it’s for and what a good answer looks like. When you’ve finished, Check readiness tells you whether it’s ready for your DPO. It runs entirely in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere, and it prints cleanly for your records.

It reflects the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the DfE generative AI product safety standards (January 2026), DfE guidance on procuring edtech, the ICO Children’s Code and edtech guidance, and the ICO’s Edtech examined audit findings. It is a template to support a context-specific assessment; it is not legal advice and does not replace your DPO’s sign-off.

Get your copy

Tell me who you are and where you work, and the download unlocks. It’s free, and shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

[ Google Form embeds here ]

Send Mark the form’s embed link and this placeholder is replaced with the live sign-up form.

After you submit the form, your download link appears. It is this file:

Download the DPIA screening tool (HTML)

Save the file and open it in any browser. No internet connection needed to use it.

How it works

  1. Complete the short sign-up form above.
  2. When you submit it, the confirmation screen shows your download link.
  3. Save the file, open it, and complete a screening for any tool you are considering.
  4. Print or save the finished assessment, and send it to your DPO for approval.

I only hold your details as set out in the privacy notice.

Guidance it speaks to