Privacy API

A privacy API is a set of calls that align a tool's behavior with the user's choice and rights: stopping tracking, deleting data, recording consent and anonymizing the IP address.

A privacy API is where a privacy policy turns from words into action; consent text without a call that actually controls collection is mere decoration. This set has several distinct roles that must not be conflated: opt-out stops future collection, deletion erases the past, consent recording persists the user's choice, and IP anonymization before storage blunts a location identifier. An important subtlety is that good privacy takes effect before collection, not after; collecting data and then hiding it does not fit the data-minimization principle. The misconception is that a 'private' tool means it collects nothing; being private means only the necessary data, anonymized, in the right place, with respect for the user's choice.