Anna Johnston, CIPP/E, CIPM, FIP

Helios Salinger

Director of Market Strategy and Client Development

Anna Johnston, Director at Helios Salinger, is one of Australia’s most respected experts in privacy law and practice. In 2004 she founded Salinger Privacy, which in 2024 became Helios Salinger, offering privacy, data governance and AI services, across consulting, training and resources. Anna is an IAPP Westin Emeritus Fellow, and Senior Fellow, Global Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum in Washington DC. Anna has been honoured for her ‘exceptional leadership, knowledge and creativity in privacy’ with the IAPP Vanguard Award, one of five privacy professionals recognised globally in 2022, whose pioneering work is helping to shape the future of privacy and data protection. The Vanguard award was bestowed in reflection of Anna’s contributions to the privacy profession, and to the protection of privacy for the benefit of all. In particular, the award recognised Anna’s contributions in a voluntary capacity over 20 years, including both formal and informal advocacy on key issues, multiple pro bono advisory positions, and knowledge-sharing through speaking and writing about privacy. Her passionate pursuit of law reform to improve protection against digital harms was called out in particular. Anna’s influential and widely-read blogs have been quoted in the Robodebt royal commission, prompted reforms to NSW privacy laws and a boycott of the 2016 Census, won awards for privacy writing, and introduced a new concept – individuation – into the privacy lexicon.

 

Contributions by Anna Johnston