Is Privacy Dead?

Is Privacy Dead—or on Life Support? Ross Saunders on Breaches, GDPR, AI, and Saving Privacy

In this episode of Cybersecurity Today on the Weekend, host David Shipley speaks with Toronto-based privacy and cybersecurity consultant Ross Saunders about whether privacy is "dead" amid major breaches, including a database allegedly exposing 153 million North American driver's licenses through compromised ID-verification infrastructure.

Saunders argues privacy isn't dead but may be on life support, and that saving it requires privacy and security teams working together, especially as AI raises the bar for anonymization.

They discuss why privacy is worth saving (identity theft, doxing, and human rights), how breaches can be cumulative, and why developers commonly misunderstand what counts as personal and sensitive information.

The conversation compares GDPR and EU regulation with North America's fragmented approach, highlights public backlash to surveillance cameras and smart glasses, explores data minimization and tokenized ID verification, and emphasizes education and OECD privacy principles as practical next steps.

00:00 Is Privacy Dead

01:33 Meet Ross Saunders

04:01 Drivers License Breach

05:46 Privacy On Life Support

08:37 Why Privacy Matters

10:13 Radiation Breach Analogy

12:37 Regulation And Apathy