About the IAPP

Anna Johnston, Privacy Partner at Helios, is one of Australia’s most respected experts in privacy law and practice. She was Founder of Salinger Privacy, which in 2024 joined Helios to offer holistic privacy, data security and legal services, across consulting, training and resources.

Anna is an IAPP Westin Emeritus Fellow, and Senior Fellow, Global Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum in Washington DC. She is a member of the OECD’s global expert group on AI, Data and Privacy.

Anna has been honoured for her ‘exceptional leadership, knowledge and creativity in privacy’ with the IAPP Vanguard Award, one of five privacy professionals recognised globally in 2022, whose pioneering work is helping to shape the future of privacy and data protection. While her day-to-day work involves assisting clients to develop innovative approaches to privacy protection, the Vanguard award was bestowed in reflection of Anna’s contributions to the privacy profession, and to the protection of privacy for the benefit of all. In particular, the award recognised Anna’s contributions in a voluntary capacity over 20 years, including both formal and informal advocacy on key issues, multiple pro bono advisory positions, and knowledge-sharing through speaking and writing about privacy. Her passionate pursuit of law reform to improve protection against digital harms was called out in particular.

Anna’s influential and widely-read privacy blogs have been quoted in the Robodebt royal commission, prompted reforms to NSW privacy laws and a boycott of the 2016 Census, won awards for privacy writing, and introduced a new concept – individuation – into the privacy lexicon.

For more information or to read her award-winning privacy blogs see http://www.salingerprivacy.com.au and https://heliosinfosec.com.au/