Celebrating Data Privacy Every Day

Ruby Zefo, Chief Privacy Officer, Uber

When January 28 arrives every year, Uber has joined many other companies and individuals in celebrating Data Privacy Day. Data Privacy Day was created to commemorate the signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty to address privacy and data protection. For Uber and many others, it is a day dedicated to increasing awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data, and enabling trust. This January, our global team of privacy professionals has created some special internal and external activities, including a message for our users placed right in our driver and rider apps.

However, as Uber’s Chief Privacy Officer, my job doesn’t start and end on January 28. My team’s mission is to drive Uber’s efforts to be a trusted steward of our users’ personal data in every market where we operate. To help bring our mission to fruition, we focus on data privacy and protection every day. These are shared responsibilities on which every employee is expected to participate. We also have a large team of people all over the world, in different job functions, who are dedicated to, and passionate about, our users’ and employees’ data privacy and protection.

One way Uber brings our mission to life every day is by following our Privacy Principles. Now seems like the perfect time for a reminder that in uncertain and difficult times, taking a principled approach to protecting individuals’ privacy rights becomes even more important. Uber’s Privacy Principles provide stability and a common framework no matter how or where personal data is collected or used. The good news is that companies don’t need to start from scratch — the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) are a good starting point, since they have been around since the 1970’s, were adopted by many organizations and institutions around the world, and stood the test of time.

Uber applied concepts from the FIPPs to our business, and created the following Privacy Principles:

Uber’s Privacy Principles start with one of our core values: Do the right thing. Our focus on ethics and responsible data management form a strong foundation on which we build trust and confidence in a positive user experience around the world.

Another way that Uber brings these principles to life is our privacy-by-design processes. Privacy-by-design means building privacy into our technologies from their inception through end-of-life, not trying to bolt it on afterward to something already finished. This makes for more efficient and elegant design and a better user experience.

But none of this would be as effective without a strong tone from the top on the importance of data privacy and security at Uber, a training and awareness program supporting and reinforcing that culture, and our Privacy Champions — people across the company who help move our privacy initiatives forward. In this way, Uber’s people fuel key elements of the privacy program by doing the right thing.

We hope every organization finds ways to embed a principled approach to data privacy and protection into its practices. Data Privacy Day is a good day to celebrate, raise awareness, and look forward to a future of bringing those principles to life in new and meaningful ways.

Happy Data Privacy Day, every day!