January 28 is Data Privacy Day

Every year privacy and security practitioners mark Data Privacy Day. This unique day falls on January 28 every year and is touted as “an international effort to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust.” You’re probably thinking to yourself, well that sounds great but what does that mean to me and my company?

Data Privacy Day is all about protecting your privacy (both personal and in business) and protecting the privacy of your clients’ data. Many of us take for granted what happens to our data, how it is used, and where it ends up. Data Privacy Day is all about taking back control of your data and purposefully controlling how it is used by the services you have signed up for and any downstream vendors those apps or services use.

Why Data Privacy Day?

Is there really a need for Data Privacy Day? Can’t I just rely on the companies running my services, my apps, and laws and regulations? Unfortunately, all those providers, groups, and organizations fall short of truly protecting you and your privacy. While many of them are actively trying to improve on they still have a long way to go.

Over the past year and a half many changes have been made to privacy laws and regulations around the world include some areas and states in the US. Most notably we’ve seen these changes in that time frame:

1) The GDPR went into effect in the EU in May 2018. It introduced sweeping changes to many privacy and security laws and practices that affect European Union residents and the companies that hold and use their information. 2) All US states now have data breach laws and continue to be updated and revised. 3) California’s Consumer Privacy Act went into effect on January 1, 2020. Although this is a California law, any business conducting business in California may be subject to this law if they meet certain additional criteria. The CCPA is designed to protect consumers privacy in a variety of ways. These include: making businesses disclose data collection and sharing practices, consumers have a right to be forgotten, opt out of the sale or sharing of their data and other protections.

Hopefully these laws and regulations will help protect your privacy, but as we’ve seen time and time again, these laws are merely a baseline. Companies and consumers must continue to be vigilante in order to protect their data from legal and illegal use, misuse and theft.

How To Manage Your Data Privacy Settings

With the help of BeSafeOnline.org, we compiled an interactive infographic PDF to help review and update privacy settings to the most popular apps and online services. Download the PDF HERE.

More Ways To Be Privacy Aware

— Review which mobile apps and services you use—do you really need them?

— Use Dark Web monitoring to see if your accounts and their credentials have been compromised and shared.

— Follow Password best practices—yes, its 2020 and we are still talking about passwords.

Be A Privacy Champion

We all need to take a stake in our privacy and protecting our data. Additionally, you must protect the data and privacy of your clients and your business. While none of this is easy, taking the time to acknowledge the importance of your privacy and data during Data Privacy Day is a great first step. Review the links in this post or reach out to us if you need help. Be a privacy champion at your organization, at home, and help others do the same. Stay safe!

Written by: Chris Zambuto | Chief Information Security Officer @CMITBostonCambridge