Privacy by Design: It’s Not Just a Legal Issue

When someone mentions a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is needed for your project, your first thought is probably that it’s a compliance box to tick—and likely a delay waiting to happen.

At ThreeBlackCats, we see privacy in a different light. It’s not just about compliance; it’s about enhancing your design and setting your project up for success. When you consider privacy early and bake it into your design from the start, it becomes a powerful enabler—not a roadblock.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s “Doing Privacy Well” guidance makes one thing crystal clear: privacy isn’t an afterthought—it’s a fundamental design requirement. To truly make a difference, privacy needs to be embedded at the design stage—not squeezed in the week before launch.

We’ve all witnessed projects nearly complete when someone finally asks, “Did we consult privacy?” That’s when the late nights begin—reworking flows, adding automated data disposal, or cutting fields like gender because there’s no clear justification for collecting them.

Privacy by design means asking these questions upfront. Know how the data flows through your organisation, challenge assumptions, minimise what you collect, and design with transparency in mind. The result? It’s not just more ethical—it’s smarter, cheaper, and faster over the long haul.

Want to chat about how we can support you with your upcoming project reach out.