How does privacy engineering differ from Privacy by Design?

By Aman Priyanshu

Privacy engineering and Privacy by Design are both approaches aimed at integrating privacy into the design and development of products and services, but they differ in their focus and implementation. Privacy engineering involves the use of technical measures and tools to build privacy protections into systems and processes. This includes implementing encryption, access controls, data minimization, and anonymization techniques to ensure that personal data is handled securely and in compliance with privacy regulations. Privacy engineering also involves conducting privacy impact assessments, threat modeling, and security testing to identify and mitigate privacy risks throughout the development lifecycle. It focuses on the technical aspects of privacy, such as data protection, security, and compliance, and requires collaboration between engineers, data scientists, and privacy professionals to achieve effective privacy outcomes.

On the other hand, Privacy by Design is a broader concept that encompasses not only technical measures but also organizational and legal considerations. It emphasizes embedding privacy into the entire business ecosystem, including policies, procedures, and practices, from the initial design stage through to operation and end-of-life. Privacy by Design encourages proactive measures such as conducting privacy assessments, promoting a privacy-aware culture, and fostering transparency and user control. It also advocates for the involvement of all stakeholders, including designers, developers, product managers, and legal and compliance teams, to ensure that privacy is a fundamental consideration in all aspects of a product or service.

To put it simply, privacy engineering is like building a strong and secure vault to protect valuable items, using advanced locks, alarms, and security systems to keep everything safe. Privacy by Design, on the other hand, is like designing a house with privacy in mind from the very beginning, including using fences, curtains, and respectful neighbors to create a safe and private living environment for the residents. Both approaches aim to ensure that privacy is integrated into the core of the product or service, but they differ in their specific focus and implementation strategies.

Please note that the provided answer is a brief overview; for a comprehensive exploration of privacy, privacy-enhancing technologies, and privacy engineering, as well as the innovative contributions from our students at Carnegie Mellon’s Privacy Engineering program, we highly encourage you to delve into our in-depth articles available through our homepage at https://privacy-engineering-cmu.github.io/.

Author: My name is Aman Priyanshu, you can check out my website for more details or check out my other socials: LinkedIn and Twitter

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