What is "Privacy by Design," and what are its core principles?

An approach that embeds privacy into systems from the very start of the data lifecycle, rather than bolting it on afterward.

Privacy cannot be an afterthought — anonymization and privacy controls must be built in from collection through processing, storage, analysis, and deletion.

The seven foundational principles (Cavoukian):

• Proactive, not reactive (prevent, don't just remediate).
• Privacy as the default setting.
• Privacy embedded into design.
• Full functionality — positive-sum, not privacy vs features.
• End-to-end security across the full lifecycle.
• Visibility and transparency.
• Respect for user privacy (user-centric).

Tip: It's also a legal expectation — GDPR Article 25 mandates "data protection by design and by default."

Go deeper:

• Privacy by design (Wikipedia) — Cavoukian's seven foundational principles and their adoption in law.