---
title: Uses of a processing activity in Privacy Management
description: A processing activity is a record that processes personal data. Examples of such records are a business process or a business application of an organization. Processing activities enable the privacy management teams to understand how personal information is being processed or used.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/governance-risk-compliance/privacy-workspace/states-of-pa.html
release: australia
product: Privacy Workspace
classification: privacy-workspace
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Reference, Privacy Management, Governance, Risk, and Compliance]
---

# Uses of a processing activity in Privacy Management

A processing activity is a record that processes personal data. Examples of such records are a business process or a business application of an organization. Processing activities enable the privacy management teams to understand how personal information is being processed or used.

To understand more details about a processing activity, refer to [Processing activities](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/privacy-workspace/ropa-record.md). A processing activity helps the privacy teams to record the following details:

-   Processing activity details such as the business unit it belongs to, data subject type, data storage location, and so on.
-   \[PI\] Information objects that are being processed as a part of this processing activity.
-   Past and ongoing privacy assessments.
-   Controls that are applied to the processing activity and the respective control attestation responses.
-   Issues and policy exceptions associated with this processing activity.

The following image shows the Overview tab of a processing activity.

\[Omitted image "processing-activity-prm-hr-onboarding-sample.png"\] Alt text: A processing activity record.

-   **[Workflow of a processing activity](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/privacy-workspace/stages-pa.md)**  
A processing activity workflow helps the privacy analysts to manage the life cycle of a processing activity.

**Parent Topic:**[Privacy Management reference](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/privacy-workspace/privacy-mgmt-reference.md)