Privacy by Design: From Research and Policy to Practice – the Challenge of Multi-disciplinarity

Abstract

The concept of Privacy by Design (PbD) is a vision for creating data-processing environments in a way that respects privacy and data protection in the design of products and processes from the start. PbD has been inspired by and elaborated in different disciplines (especially law and computer science). Developments have taken place in research and policy, with the General Data Protection Regulation to be adopted by the European Parliament in 2016 and to enter into force in 2018. It is now time to use the results for practical guidance on how to achieve the goals defined by the legislation. In this paper, we summarise lessons learned from the special session on Multidisciplinary Aspects of PbD organised at the Annual Privacy Forum 2015. In particular, we identify important current and future implementation challenges of PbD. These are: terminology, legal compliance, different disciplines’ understandings, the role of the data protection officer, the involvement of all stakeholders, and education. We conclude by emphasising the importance of approaching PbD in an interdisciplinary way.