Commencing in 2007 in Europe and 2008 in the US and Canada, DPD is observed every January 28th in the United States, Canada, and 47 European countries. This isn’t a random date – it commemorates the 1981 signing of Convention 108, the first international treaty concerning privacy and data protection and arguably the genesis of contemporary efforts including GDPR and CCPA.
Data Privacy Day activities in North America are led by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), the same group that brings us National Cyber Security Awareness Month every October. This includes a keynote event with speakers and panel participants from venerable organizations: NCSA itself, LinkedIn, Microsoft, the US FTC, the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and others. They explore a breadth of privacy related topics and ideas. It’s free to attend in person if you’re in San Francisco, or you can watch the live stream.