Privacy by Design

Privacy by design is an approach to systems engineering initially developed by Ann Cavoukian and formalized in a joint report on privacy-enhancing technologies by a joint team of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (Canada), the Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in 1995. The privacy by design framework was published in 2009 and adopted by the International Assembly of Privacy Commissioners and Data Protection Authorities in 2010. Privacy by design calls for privacy to be taken into account throughout the whole engineering process. The concept is an example of value sensitive design, i.e., to take human values into account in a well-defined manner throughout the whole process and may have been derived from this. Privacy by design is an approach to systems engineering initially developed by Ann Cavoukian and formalized in a joint report on privacy-enhancing technologies by a joint team of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (Canada), the Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in 1995. The privacy by design framework was published in 2009 and adopted by the International Assembly of Privacy Commissioners and Data Protection Authorities in 2010. Privacy by design calls for privacy to be taken into account throughout the whole engineering process. The concept is an example of value sensitive design, i.e., to take human values into account in a well-defined manner throughout the whole process and may have been derived from this. Cavoukian's approach to privacy has been criticized as being vague, difficult to enforce its adoption, difficult to apply to certain disciplines, as well as prioritizing corporate interests over consumers' interests and placing insufficient emphasis on minimizing data collection. The European GDPR regulation incorporates privacy by design. The privacy by design framework was developed by Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, following her joint work with the Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in 1995.In 2009, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario co-hosted an event, Privacy by Design: The Definitive Workshop, with the Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority at the 31st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioner (2009). In 2010 the framework achieved international acceptance when the International Assembly of Privacy Commissioners and Data Protection Authorities unanimously passed a resolution on privacy by design recognising it as an international standard at their annual conference. Among other commitments, the commissioners resolved to promote privacy by design as widely as possible and foster the incorporation of the principle into policy and legislation. Germany released a statute (§ 3 IV TDDG) back in July 1997. The new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) includes ‘data protection by design’ and ‘data protection by default’, the second foundational principle of privacy by design. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner included privacy by design in its report on Privacy, Trust and Innovation – Building Canada’s Digital Advantage. In 2012, U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recognized privacy by design as one of its three recommended practices for protecting online privacy in its report entitled Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change, and the FTC included privacy by design as one of the key pillars in its Final Commissioner Report on Protecting Consumer Privacy. In Australia, the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection for the State of Victoria (CPDP) has formally adopted privacy by design as a core policy to underpin information privacy management in the Victorian public sector. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office website highlights privacy by design and data protection by design and default. In October 2014, the Mauritius Declaration on the Internet of Things was made at the 36th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners and included privacy by design and default. The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong held an educational conference on the importance of privacy by design. In the private sector, Sidewalk Toronto commits to privacy by design principles; Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft, wrote an article called Privacy by Design at Microsoft; whilst Deloitte relates certifiably trustworthy to privacy by design. Privacy by design is based on seven 'foundational principles': The principles have been cited in over five hundred articles referring to the Privacy by Design in Law, Policy and Practice white paper by Ann Cavoukian.