Data Privacy Day 2022: Why Privacy Matters?

By Rabab Zehra, Executive Editor at TECHx Media

How many times have you convinced yourself that you don’t need to stress about data privacy since you have nothing to hide?

To some extent, this is true, but not absolutely!

This “nothing to hide” argument underlies privacy discussions.

Assume that we live in a perfect world, which is devoid of bad actors. In this scenario, sharing personal information such as age, gender, skin color, political viewpoints, religious beliefs, social circle, health data, or personal preferences would not be a problem.

Our world, however, is one where if our information is revealed to the bad actors, we might end up in hot water.

Since today is Data Privacy Day, it’s a good time to take a step back and think about when, how, and to what extent personal information should be shared or communicated online.

Bernard Montel, EMEA Technical Director and Security Strategist, Tenable told TECHx Media: “When discussing data privacy, we must also consider data security – you can’t have privacy without safeguarding it. And yet, according to research by Tenable’s Security Response Team, 2021 was another record year for cybersecurity incidents, and with it data breaches. A staggering 40,417,167,937 records were exposed worldwide in 2021, but that’s just an indication of the true number. According to the researchers, 87% of breach disclosures analyzed did not include any information on the number of records exposed, meaning this figure will be significantly higher.

“The issue is that threat actors know they can monetise their crimes by targeting valuable data. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, it’s not advanced threats that cause organisations to spill their secrets, it’s known but unpatched vulnerabilities. If companies want to stay ahead of the curve and avoid becoming a target, they need to appear unattainable to bad actors and that means removing the low hanging fruit – the known but unpatched flaws in systems and software. This data privacy day, rather than focusing on the tactics threat actors use, focus on identifying and blocking the attack paths they look to exploit,” Montel added.

Knowing how your data can be misused if it is not kept private will help you protect yourself from a wide range of risks.

Cybercrime, security breaches, and security threats can all lead to negative outcomes, which is why data privacy regulations play such an important role both on an individual and organizational level.

For you to get the most out of online experiences, you and your family need to live a productive and safe online life. Protecting your private information against viruses, spyware, and hackers in today’s digital era is paramount, whether you love to shop, search for information, or maintain contact with friends.

When it comes to business, irrespective of its size, the maturity of your compliance program, or the number of people on your compliance team, most businesses could benefit from improved data privacy practices.

It would be wise to evaluate your company’s data privacy policies and practices sooner rather than later to ensure you are utilizing all the resources at your disposal to protect your customer’s sensitive data, your business’ bottom line, and their trust.