Why Data Privacy is Important and How You Can Make It a Priority
Since so much of the world is now online, businesses and organizations interact with people online now more than ever. This means they also collect people’s information, a practice they do for various reasons. Individuals need to consider their own data privacy and how it might be affected by business practices.
Why Data Privacy is Important
In short, data privacy is all about how much control individuals have over their personal data, as well as how it’s collected, used, and shared.
This might involve protecting your data from unauthorized access or disclosure. The worst part is the sheer amount of data collected, processed, and sold. Since there is so much of it, the threat surface is astronomically high.
If you’re not careful, your data could potentially be exposed to hackers and other threats.
What Personal Data is Collected
Curious about what types of data are at risk? Here’s what the websites, companies, services, and organizations you work with might collect:
- Identity – Includes your name, date of birth, gender, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, and other similar identifiers.
- Contact Info – Includes your address, email address, phone number, and other contact details.
- Financial – Includes your bank account details, credit card numbers, income, credit history, and other financial data.
- Health – Includes your medical history, health insurance information, genetic data, biometric data (like fingerprints or facial recognition), and other health-related data.
- Online Activity – Includes your browsing history, search queries, IP address, location data, cookies, and other data related to your online behavior.
- Commercial – Includes records of products or services you have purchased, your purchase history, and other commercial data.
- Demographics – Includes your age, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, and other demographic data.
- Professional – This includes your employment history, education, job title, and other professional data.
Now perhaps you see the gravity of the situation; it’s not pretty, and you need to remain cautious.
How Organizations Use Your Personal Data
You might be wondering, “What do all these companies use my data for, anyway?”
Most businesses will build a customer profile that lets them make use of the data for sales and marketing purposes. Others might use this data to customize their service offerings. Unfortunately, not all businesses have the same practices, and some might use the data in unethical ways.
This is why it’s important to know what your data is being used for, as businesses will use data they don’t have consent to use, or they might use it without adequate protection or for purposes such as tracking and surveillance.
How You Can Protect Your Personal Data
How your personal data is used boils down to security awareness.
Most businesses will have terms and conditions, which you should at least gloss over if you want to know how your data will be used. We recommend that you only share what is absolutely necessary to use the product or service. Too many individuals share too much information online, so being a little conservative with your data sharing will go a long way toward limiting how much data businesses collect from you.
Of course, the typical security measures we always recommend, like complex and unique passwords and two-factor authentication, are also helpful—just in case.
White Mountain IT Services respects your data privacy, and we want to help you take it seriously in the new year. Learn more by calling us today at (603) 889-0800.
