privacy by design

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the principle, developed by Ann Cavoukian in the 1990s and now codified in GDPR Article 25, that privacy protections should be built into the design of information systems and business processes from the outset rather than added as an afterthought; its seven foundational principles include: proactive rather than reactive privacy protection; privacy as the default setting; privacy embedded into system design; full functionality (not a zero-sum trade-off); end-to-end security; visibility and transparency; and respect for user privacy; privacy by design requires organisations to conduct data protection impact assessments before launching new products, to minimise data collection at the architecture level, and to treat privacy as a fundamental design constraint rather than a compliance checkbox, representing a shift from legalistic to engineering approaches to personal data protection