Privacy

Sunset Over UC Berkeley Campus

Privacy at UC Berkeley

"Privacy is fundamental to the University

Academic and intellectual freedoms are values of the academy that help further the mission of the University. These freedoms are most vibrant where individuals have autonomy: where their inquiry is free because it is given adequate space for experimentation and their ability to speak and participate in discourse within the academy is possible without intimidation. Privacy is a condition that makes living out these values possible." (read more at Why Privacy?)

The UC Berkeley Privacy Office is the focal point for campus privacy issues. The Privacy Office strives to protect and promote UC Berkeley’s privacy values through a unified and comprehensive privacy program, and oversees institutional compliance with federal and state privacy regulations, as well as campus and UC policy.

The work of the Privacy Office is organized around four program areas:

  1. Compliance – Oversight of our legal, regulatory, and contractual privacy obligations
  2. Policy/Governance – Establishing direction, responsibilities, and intended outcomes in privacy, also interpreting privacy policy and managing the investigation of reported violations
  3. Outreach – Educating our internal community to establish expectations and promote awareness, as well as external communications and collaboration 
  4. Privacy by Design – Align campus practices with stated privacy values by building privacy safeguards into campus administrative processes.

UC Statement of Privacy Values and UC Privacy Principles(link is external)

Privacy vs. Privacy(link is external) (Berkeley Blog)
UC Berkeley is replacing the longstanding "security vs. privacy" polemic with a triptych of interrelated and overlapping terms: autonomy privacy, information privacy, and information security. But the old conundrum remains: common best practices for protecting information privacy can negatively impact autonomy privacy.