The world digital trail has become common. Ip addresses, cookies etc and every activity we take part in online leaves a trail. Information privacy is there to ensure the details that we drop online are protected, and that our personal information online is not accessed by illegal entities.
What is Data privacy?
Data privacy can be generally defined as the degree to which an individual is willing to give out personal information. The ability of a person to determine what information they are willing to share? the extent of information they are willing to share, and who they are sharing them with.
Personal information such as Name, Date of Birth, location, email address, online and offline characteristics are sensitive information. The whole concept is just akin to the way we love to exclude a certain set of people from a conversation we deem “private or personal” such is the same with Data privacy.
Why is data privacy important?
Privacy is now considered a fundamental human right in a lot of regions and countries, so data protection laws exist to enforce that right. A popular one is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is the European Union law that guides data privacy, protection and residency activities.
Data privacy is also important because of trust. When there is trust that personal information will not be divulged people will respond better to social experiments etc. Organizations use data protection practices to assure their customers and staff that they can be trusted with their personal data.
Personal data can be misused in a number of ways if it is not kept private or if people are not able to control how their information is used:
- Criminals can use personal data to defraud or harass users.
- Businesses may sell personal data to advertisers or other outside parties without user consent, which can result in users receiving unwanted marketing or advertising.
- When a person’s activities are tracked and monitored, this may hinder their ability to express themselves freely, especially under repressive governments.
- For individuals, any of these outcomes can be harmful.
- For a business, these outcomes can irreparably harm the business’s reputation, as well as result in fines, sanctions, and other legal consequences.
Many people and countries hold privacy in high esteem, they largely opine that privacy is a human right fundamental to a free society, like the right to free speech.
What are the laws that govern data privacy?
Technical advancements have improved the way data is being collected, analyzed, stored and disseminated, which is why there are some regulatory bodies that determine how the collection and other processes are carried out. Some of the most important regulatory privacy frameworks to know include:
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Regulates how the personal data of European Union (EU) data subjects, meaning individuals, can be collected, stored, and processed, and gives data subjects rights to control their personal data (including a right to be forgotten).
National data protection laws: Many countries, such as Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and others, have comprehensive data protection laws in some form. Some, like Brazil’s General Law for the Protection of Personal Data and the UK’s Data Protection Act, are quite similar to the GDPR.
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Requires that consumers be made aware of what personal data is collected and gives consumers control over their personal data, including a right to tell organizations not to sell their personal data.
There are also industry-specific privacy guidelines in some countries: for instance, in the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs how personal healthcare data should be handled.
However, due to the constant press by some people stating that privacy regulations are not strict enough, governments and regulatory bodies around the world might start to make new rules.
Challenges of Data Privacy
- Communication: Organizations at times find it hard to share information and communicate clearly to their stakeholders what personal data they are collecting and how they use it.
- Cyber crime: Attackers target both individual users and organizations that collect and store data about those users. In addition, as more aspects of a business become Internet-connected, the attack surface increases.
- Data breaches: A data breach can lead to a massive violation of user privacy if personal details are leaked, and attackers continue to refine the techniques they use to cause these breaches.
- Insider threat: Internal employees or contractors might inappropriately access data if it is not adequately protected.
