Wouldn’t it be nice if privacy wasn’t an afterthought? What if user privacy was built in from the get go? What if the entire design assumed that you didn’t want anyone selling your data – and respected those wishes? That’s the world of Privacy by Design – a concept pioneered in the mid-1990’s by Dr. Ann Cavoukian. This may seem like an unattainable Utopian future, but Ann’s infectious optimism may just convince you otherwise. Adding privacy doesn’t mean sacrificing security or functionality, if done properly. Today we discuss the concepts of Privacy by Design and how we can achieve it.

Dr. Ann Cavoukian is recognized as one of the world’s leading privacy experts. Dr. Cavoukian served an unprecedented three terms as the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada. There she created Privacy by Design, a framework that seeks to proactively embed privacy into the design specifications of information technologies. In 2010, International Privacy Regulators unanimously passed a Resolution recognizing Privacy by Design as an International Standard. Since then, PbD has been translated into 40 languages! In 2018, PbD was included in a sweeping new law in the EU: the General Data Protection Regulation. Dr. Cavoukian is now the Executive Director of the Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre.