Privacy by design

In short: Privacy by design means building data protection in when designing a system rather than adding it later. Defaults should be data-minimising (privacy by default).

In more detail: Art. 25 GDPR demands suitable technical and organisational measures from the start: collect only necessary data, anonymise early, limit access, plan for deletion.

Our context: Many Emzett tools store data only in the browser: document vault, budget book, contract radar, invoices, energy. The product scanner sends only the barcode number. The state of “Who owes whom” sits in the part of the address after the #, which is never sent to the server.

In Depth

• Data minimisation: collect only what is necessary for the purpose.
• Local instead of server: computation in the browser, data stays with the user.
• Pseudonymise and anonymise: replace names with identifiers or remove the personal reference.
• Encryption: end-to-end where the provider does not need to read anything (end-to-end encryption).
• Deletion concepts: deadlines and automatic deletion.
• Defaults: tracking off, profiles private, sharing deliberate.

See also: Data protection impact assessment, Data subject rights under the GDPR