Defining Privacy Engineering
This resource, developed by the IAPP Privacy Engineering Section Advisory Board and part of the Privacy Engineering Domains series, provides a broad definition of privacy engineering.
Published: 1 June 2023
Last updated: 21 July 2025
This resource provides a broad definition of privacy engineering and highlights various domains in which privacy engineers can significantly impact the protection of privacy.
Privacy engineering is the act of applying systematic, scientific or methodological approaches to include requirements for privacy* in the design, development, and operations of systems and services through various domains, such as software development, system design, data science, physical architecture, process design, information technology infrastructure and human-computer interaction/user experience design.
The privacy engineering domain examples and quotes within this resource are exemplary for work in each domain and are not representative definitions.
This resource is part of a wider IAPP series on Privacy Engineering Domains, which facilitates a deeper understanding of and collaboration within the increasingly important field of privacy engineering.

This content is eligible for Continuing Professional Education credits. Please self-submit according to CPE policy guidelines.
Defining Privacy Engineering
This resource, developed by the IAPP Privacy Engineering Section Advisory Board and part of the Privacy Engineering Domains series, provides a broad definition of privacy engineering.
Published: 1 June 2023
Last updated: 21 July 2025
This resource provides a broad definition of privacy engineering and highlights various domains in which privacy engineers can significantly impact the protection of privacy.
Privacy engineering is the act of applying systematic, scientific or methodological approaches to include requirements for privacy* in the design, development, and operations of systems and services through various domains, such as software development, system design, data science, physical architecture, process design, information technology infrastructure and human-computer interaction/user experience design.
The privacy engineering domain examples and quotes within this resource are exemplary for work in each domain and are not representative definitions.
This resource is part of a wider IAPP series on Privacy Engineering Domains, which facilitates a deeper understanding of and collaboration within the increasingly important field of privacy engineering.

This content is eligible for Continuing Professional Education credits. Please self-submit according to CPE policy guidelines.
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