From courtroom battles and sanctions reversals to ZK breakthroughs and global regulatory pressure, 2025 made one thing clear:
Privacy is no longer peripheral. It is central.
Below is the alphabetically ordered longlist of all nominated news items.
Keep in mind, this is just alphabetical ranking. Winners will be announced soon.
Out of 38 longlisted developments:
8 relate to government regulation and anti-privacy legislation
7 reflect ecosystem privacy innovation
6 center on legal battles and the criminalization of privacy tools
5 expose surveillance infrastructure and institutional monitoring
5 involve major data breaches or infrastructure failures
4 highlight zero-knowledge research and cryptographic advances
2 mark a broader cultural and narrative shift toward privacy
1 focuses on digital identity expansion
The story of 2025 is not just about leaks or hacks.
It is about courts, sanctions, legislation, identity systems, and the normalization of privacy as foundational infrastructure.I. Legal Battles & Criminalization of Privacy Tools
This longlist reflects the community’s view of the most significant privacy-related news of 2025.
From sanctions reversals to courtroom battles, from digital ID mandates to cryptographic breakthroughs, this was a year where privacy moved decisively into the center of global debate.
Stay tuned for winners announcement.
Meanwhile, check other longlists:
Best Privacy Project
Best Privacy Event of 2025
Biggest Doxxer of 2025
