A privacy-aware event list starts with decisions your team already makes, not with a vendor’s default catalog. Before naming a single event, list the product questions that actually change a roadmap: where people pause during onboarding, which features earn a second visit, and when someone cancels a trial.
Each candidate event needs a trigger that an engineer can implement the same way every release. Vague ideas such as “user engaged” create noisy data and invite over-collection. Prefer concrete moments: form submitted, paywall viewed, notification permission answered.
Properties should answer the question without carrying identifiers you do not need. Prefer coarse buckets over free-text fields that may hold names, messages, or addresses. If a property could appear in a privacy request, ask whether the same insight is available another way.
Document consent dependence for every event. Some measurements only fire after an affirmative choice; others may be essential for security or basic service operation. Writing that distinction into the taxonomy prevents late-night debates when a release ships.
Keep a short “do not collect” list beside the dictionary. Teams move faster when they can point to a shared rule instead of reinventing caution on every ticket.