What is data privacy?Data privacy, also called information privacy, is an aspect of data protection that addresses the proper storage, access, retention, immutability and security of sensitive data. Show
Data privacy is typically associated with the proper handling of personal data or personally identifiable information (PII), such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers. However, the idea also extends to other valuable or confidential data, including financial data, intellectual property and personal health information. Vertical industry guidelines often govern data privacy and data protection initiatives, as well as regulatory requirements of various governing bodies and jurisdictions. Data privacy is not a single concept or approach. Instead, it's a discipline involving rules, practices, guidelines and tools to help organizations establish and maintain required levels of privacy compliance. Data privacy is generally composed of the following six elements:
Data privacy is a subset of the broader data protection concept. It includes traditional data protection -- such as data backups and disaster recovery considerations -- and data security. The goal of data protection is to ensure the continued privacy and security of sensitive business data, while maintaining the availability, consistency and immutability of that data. There are three key elements to keeping data safe: Data security, access control and data protection.Why is data privacy important?The importance of data privacy is directly related to the business value of data. The evolving data economy is driving businesses of all sizes to collect and store more data from more sources than ever before. Data is used for a range of business reasons, including the following:
Data privacy is a discipline intended to keep data safe against improper access, theft or loss. It's vital to keep data confidential and secure by exercising sound data management and preventing unauthorized access that might result in data loss, alteration or theft. For individuals, the exposure of personal data might lead to improper account charges, privacy intrusion or identity theft. For businesses, unauthorized access to sensitive data can expose intellectual property, trade secrets and confidential communications; it can also adversely affect the outcome of data analytics. Data privacy lapses, also referred to as data breaches, can have a serious effect on all parties involved. Individuals affected by a data breach may find improper financial and credit activity in their name, compromised social media accounts and other issues. A business may face significant regulatory consequences, such as fines, lawsuits, and irreparable damage to their brand and reputation. With the integrity of its data compromised, a business may not be able to trust its data and need a response plan. A comprehensive data privacy strategy requires several elements.What are the laws of data privacy?Regulatory legislation drives many data privacy practices because government entities recognize the potential negative effects of data breaches on citizens and the greater economy. Numerous laws require and enforce data privacy functions and capabilities. In the U.S., laws and regulations concerning data privacy have been enacted in response to the needs of a particular industry or section of the population. Examples include:
While some U.S. data protection laws are enacted at the federal level, states may also ratify and enact data privacy laws. Examples of state-level data privacy laws include the following:
The EU has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which governs the collection, use, transmission and security of data collected from residents of its 27-member countries. GDPR regulates areas such an individual's ability to consent to provide data, how organizations must notify data subjects of breaches and individual's rights over the use of their data. The California Consumer Privacy Act addresses five key privacy rights.Data privacy vs. data securityData privacy and data security are closely related ideas, but they aren't interchangeable.
Data privacy is a subset of data security. That is, data privacy can't exist without data security.
What are the challenges of data privacy?Data privacy isn't easy or automatic, and many businesses struggle to meet requirements and counter threats in an ever-changing regulatory and security landscape. Some of the biggest data privacy challenges include the following:
What are the benefits of data privacy compliance?Proper data privacy compliance can yield four major benefits for a business, including:
Tips to protect data privacyThere are countless guidelines and tips that can apply to data privacy. For individuals, data privacy can be reinforced with safeguards and actions such as the following:
For businesses, privacy principles and guidelines are more extensive and complex, but they can include the following tactics:
A business must also contend with privacy legislation and regulatory issues related to data storage and retention. All data privacy guidance should include a thorough understanding of regulatory requirements. Data privacy is one of the most challenging areas of IT security many businesses have to contend with. Find out more about the top three data privacy challenges. This was last updated in August 2022 Continue Reading About data privacy (information privacy)
Dig Deeper on Risk management and governance
Which of the following is a legitimate responsibility of an organization regarding user private data?Which of the following is a legitimate responsibility of an organization regarding user private data? Use proprietary methods for data collection to maintain security.
What hides the existence of the data?Cryptography and steganography are both methods used to hide or protect secret data. However, they differ in the respect that cryptography makes the data unreadable, or hides the meaning of the data, while steganography hides the existence of the data.
Which of the following is an advantage of hardware encryption over software encryption?Hardware encryption is safer than software encryption because the encryption process is separate from the rest of the machine. This makes it much harder to intercept or break. The use of a dedicated processor also relieves the burden on the rest of your device, making the encryption and decryption process much faster.
Which of the following is an advantage of hardware encryption?Benefits. The major benefit of hardware encryption is that it doesn't need to be installed on the host computer's operating system. This means even if your OS is compromised, hardware encryption processes will still keep your data secure.
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