A Movement To Bake Online Privacy Into Modern Life, 'By Design'
As we become a more digitally connected society, one question has become increasingly pervasive: Is the expectation of privacy still reasonable?
Ann Cavoukian, the privacy commissioner for Ontario, Canada, thinks so. She contends that privacy — including privacy online — is foundational to a free society. She developed a framework for approaching privacy issues back in the 1990s that's been recognized around the world.
Her approach of seven principles, called "Privacy By Design," advocates that tech designers and engineers need to bake privacy provisions into their products and work from the start, not as an afterthought.
The Federal Trade Commission has called on companies to implement Privacy By Design, and in 2010, the European Union called the approach a key tool to promote citizens' trust in a connected society.
"It's all about thinking preventatively, preventing the privacy harm from arising," Cavoukian tells All Things Considered host Audie Cornish, "as opposed to offering some system of redress after the fact."