Breaking Down Privacy by Design: A Threefold Perspective

The age of big data has raised concerns over how organizations processing data can best safeguard the privacy of individuals. The framework of Privacy by Design (PbD) provides a foundation for the integration of privacy into systems proactively and not reactively, setting the standard for privacy as the default mindset. Particularly in the demonstration of compliance as mandated by data protection regulations, the seven principles proposed by PbD can serve as a useful starting point for responsible data processing. Nevertheless, the principles of PbD are intentionally open-ended and do not make a distinction between legal, technical, and organizational aspects. Based on existing literature, we address this gap by investigating PbD from these three perspectives, with a particular focus on mapping PbD principles to Privacy-Enhancing Technologies. We validate our findings in a series of iterative sessions with privacy professionals, who confirm the accuracy and practical relevance of our work.