Privacy must be built into systems from the outset and as the default setting — minimising data, limiting access and applying safeguards by design rather than as an afterthought.
Key points
- Design data protection into new products and processes.
- Default settings should be the most privacy-protective.
Official text & source
Article 25 of the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). Read the full, authoritative text on EUR-Lex.
Official text
Verbatim text of Article 25 of the General Data Protection Regulation — Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
Taking into account the state of the art, the cost of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risks of varying likelihood and severity for rights and freedoms of natural persons posed by the processing, the controller shall, both at the time of the determination of the means for processing and at the time of the processing itself, implement appropriate technical and organisational measures, such as pseudonymisation, which are designed to implement data-protection principles, such as data minimisation, in an effective manner and to integrate the necessary safeguards into the processing in order to meet the requirements of this Regulation and protect the rights of data subjects.
1 The controller shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures for ensuring that, by default, only personal data which are necessary for each specific purpose of the processing are processed. 2 That obligation applies to the amount of personal data collected, the extent of their processing, the period of their storage and their accessibility. 3 In particular, such measures shall ensure that by default personal data are not made accessible without the individual's intervention to an indefinite number of natural persons.
An approved certification mechanism pursuant to Article 42 may be used as an element to demonstrate compliance with the requirements set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1). Official text reproduced from EUR-Lex — © European Union. Only European Union legislation published in the Official Journal is deemed authentic.
Related articles
These summaries are a plain-English orientation only and are not a substitute for the official text of the Regulation or for legal advice.
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