What is Data Privacy? What is Data Privacy? Data privacy generally refers to a person's ability to decide for themselves when, how, and to what extent personal information about them is shared with or transferred to others . This personal information can be a person's name, location, contact information, or online or real-world behavior. Just as someone might want to exclude people from a private conversation, many online users want to control or prevent certain types of personal data collection.
As internet usage has grown over the years, the importance of data privacy has increased. Websites, apps, and social media platforms often need to collect and store personal data about users in order to provide services. However, some apps and platforms may exceed user expectations regarding data collection and use, leaving users with less privacy than they realized. Other apps and platforms may not put adequate safeguards around the data they collect, which can lead to data breaches that threaten user privacy.
Why is data privacy important? In many jurisdictions, privacy is considered a fundamental human right, and data protection laws exist to protect this right. Data privacy is also important because for individuals to be willing to engage online, they must trust that their personal data will be handled with care. Organizations use data protection practices to demonstrate to their customers and users that their personal data can be trusted.
Personal data can be misused in several ways if it is not kept,
private, or if individuals do not have the ability to control how their information is used:
Criminals can use personal data to defraud or harass users. Entities may sell personal data to advertisers or other third parties without user consent, which may result in users receiving unwanted marketing materials or advertisements. When a person's activities are tracked and monitored, it may limit their ability to express themselves freely, especially under repressive governments.
For individuals, any of these outcomes can be harmful.
For businesses, these outcomes can irreparably damage their reputation,
as well as lead to fines, penalties, and other legal consequences.
Beyond the practical consequences of privacy violations,
many people and countries believe that privacy has intrinsic value: that privacy is a fundamental human right in a free society, just like the right to freedom of expression.
What laws govern data privacy? As technological advances have improved data collection and surveillance capabilities, governments around the world have begun enacting laws regulating what types of data can be collected about users, how that data can be used, and how data should be stored and protected. Some of the most important regulatory privacy frameworks to know include:
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) : Regulates how personal data of EU data subjects — i.e., individuals — is collected, stored, and processed, and grants data owners rights to control their personal data (including the right to be forgotten).National data protection laws: Many countries, such as Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and others, have some form of comprehensive data protection law. Some, such as Brazil's General Personal Data Protection Law and the UK's Data Protection Act, closely resemble the GDPR. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Requires that consumers be aware of the personal data being collected and grants consumers control over their personal data, including the right to tell organizations not to sell their personal data.
There are also industry-specific privacy guidelines in some countries: for example.
In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs how personal healthcare data is handled.
However, many privacy advocates argue that individuals still do not have sufficient control over what happens to their personal data. Governments around the world may pass additional data privacy laws in the future.
What are Fair Information Practices? Many current data protection laws are based on fundamental privacy principles and practices, such as those set out in Fair Information Practices. Fair Information Practices are a set of guidelines for data collection and use. These guidelines were first proposed by an advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1973. They were later adopted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its guidelines on the protection of privacy and transborder flows of personal data.
The Fair Information Practices are:
Collection Limitation: There should be limits on the amount of personal data that can be collectedData Quality: Personal data, when collected, should be accurate and relevant to the purpose for which it is usedPurpose Specification: The use of personal data should be specifiedUse Limitation: Data should not be used for purposes other than those specifiedSecurity Safeguards: Data should remain secureOpenness: The collection and use of personal data should not be kept secret from individualsIndividual Participation: Individuals have a number of rights, including the right to know who holds their personal data, to have their data communicated to them, to know the reason a request for their data was denied, and to correct or erase their personal data.Accountability: Anyone who collects data should be held responsible for implementing these principles.
What are some challenges users face when protecting their privacy online? Online tracking: User behavior is regularly tracked online. Cookies often record user activities , and while most countries require websites to alert users about the use of cookies, users may not be aware of the degree to which cookies record their activities.
Loss of control over data: With so many online services in common use, individuals may not be aware of how their data is shared beyond the websites they interact with online, and may have no say in what happens to their data.
Lack of transparency: To use web applications, users are often required to provide personal data such as name, email, phone number, or location; meanwhile, the privacy policies associated with these applications may be dense and difficult to understand.
Social media: Finding a person online using social media platforms has become easier than ever, and social media posts may reveal more personal information than users realize. In addition, social media platforms often collect more data than users know.
Cybercrime: Many attackers attempt to steal user data to commit fraud, breach secure systems, or sell it on underground markets to parties who will use the data for malicious purposes. Some attackers use phishing attacks to try to trick users into disclosing personal information; others attempt to breach companies' internal systems that contain personal data.
What are some challenges businesses face when protecting user privacy? Communication: Organizations sometimes struggle to communicate clearly with their users about the personal data they collect and how it is used.
Cybercrime: Attackers target individual users and organizations that collect and store data about those users. In addition, the more aspects of a business become connected online, the greater the attack surface.
Data breaches: A data breach can constitute a significant violation of user privacy if personal details are leaked, and attackers continue to improve the methods they use to cause these breaches.
Insider threats: Internal employees or contractors may access data inappropriately if it is not adequately protected.
What are some of the most important technologies for data privacy?
Encryption is a means of concealing information by scrambling it so that it appears to be random data. Only parties with the encryption key can decode the information.Access control ensures that only authorized parties access systems and data. Access control can be combined with data loss prevention (DLP) to prevent sensitive data from leaving the network. Two-factor authentication is one of the most important technologies for everyday users, as it makes it harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access to personal accounts .
These are just some of the technologies available today that can protect user privacy and keep data secure. However, technology alone is not enough to protect data privacy.
