Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Data protection definition

What does Data protection mean? In legal practice, data protection describes the rules governing how organisations collect, use, share, retain and secure personal data, including employees’ information. In the UK this regime is set by the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018; in Ireland by the EU GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (Ireland). The label is descriptive; core concepts (personal data, controller, processor, special category data) and obligations are defined in legislation. In employment, the employer is typically the controller and must identify a lawful basis (for example, contract, legal obligation or legitimate interests) and, for special category data,...

UK GDPR Article 25: Data Protection by Design and Default (DPbDD) - Practical Measures, Lifecycle Approach, DPIA Overlap, ICO Examples, and Responsibilities for Controllers and Processors

Published by a LexisNexis Risk & Compliance expert

Practice notes

data protection by design and default (DPbDD)

Organisations often pay insufficient attention to data protection by design and default (DPbDD) when assessing their UK GDPR obligations. This is understandable, as DPbDD is an intangible, pervasive concept that can be hard to turn into specific measures, especially when compared with other discrete duties under the UK GDPR. Nonetheless, the UK GDPR contains a dedicated provision on DPbDD (Article 25) and the information commissioner’s Office provides extensive guidance: ICO, UK GDPR guidance and resources, Data protection by design and default. In essence, DPbDD requires you to consider privacy and data protection from the outset in everything you do, embedding it into your processing and business practices from initial design through the entire lifecycle.

Taking a DPbDD approach from the beginning, rather than retrofitting at the end:

helps you comply with many other aspects of the UK GDPR—see UK GDPR requirements
can lower long-term costs by avoiding future large-scale redesigns when data protection issues surface
can bolster user trust and confidence
can improve your prospects of meeting procurement expectations in regulated sectors such as healthcare
can make it easier to convince other organisations to collaborate with you...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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