Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) - Version 2.0

Abstract

The Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV), developed by the W3C Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group (DPVCG), enables the creation of machine-readable, interoperable, and standards-based representations for describing the processing of personal data. The group has also published extensions to the DPV to describe specific applications to support legislative requirements such as the EU’s GDPR. The DPV fills a crucial niche in the state of the art by providing a vocabulary that can be embedded and used alongside other existing standards such as W3C ODRL, and which can be customised and extended for adapting to specifics of use-cases or domains. This article describes the version 2 iteration of the DPV in terms of its contents, methodology, current adoptions and uses, and future potential. It also describes the relevance and role of DPV in acting as a common vocabulary to support various regulatory (e.g., EU’s DGA and AI Act) and community initiatives (e.g., Solid) emerging across the globe.