IAPP 25: 25 leaders, 25 moments at 25 years

In 2025, the IAPP celebrated its 25th anniversary. Over those two-and-a-half decades, privacy evolved from a niche compliance task handled by a small cadre of professionals into a core business function for organizations around the world. In many ways, the profession's origins trace back to the rise of the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s. From there, it only grew in significance as technology evolved, and laws emerged globally.

With massive developments like the advent of smartphones, the invalidation of multiple trans-Atlantic data transfer agreements, the sweeping impact and influence of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence, data professionals have had to constantly adapt to changes taking place almost daily.

To reflect on the dramatic rise of the privacy and digital responsibility profession — and the parallel growth of the IAPP — we highlighted 25 leaders and 25 moments from the last 25 years. Beginning in January and running through December 2025, we published a new LinkedIn post each Friday that looked back at notable leaders and moments during the IAPP's history.

While this collection is not exhaustive, it was curated to demonstrate the wide array of voices and developments across the field — from industry, advocacy, academia, government and journalism — and to capture key developments in privacy, AI governance and cybersecurity, as well as the IAPP's own evolution.

Each week's post alternated between leaders and moments, often aligning with the timing of when those milestones took place. Here, we bring them together in two sections within a single volume.