Digital data privacy is a concern no matter where you are in the world — individuals and organizations alike.
And with inevitable, continued technological advancements, data is only going to become more abundant. So protecting personal information and adhering to privacy regulations are paramount.
Now that a new year is upon us, it’s helpful to look back on the past year’s data privacy trends to reflect on challenges and opportunities.
Here, we’ll review 2023 data privacy trends and how they’ve shaped our current digital landscape. We’ll also explore how your business can navigate these changes effectively with the help of managed IT.
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Trend 1: Greater Focus on Data Protection
Data breaches and privacy scandals have brought data protection to the forefront of public interest. Any huge breach that’s been circulating in the news for weeks is difficult to ignore.
Consider this story on Real Estate Wealth Management’s massive data breach in December 2023. It was one of the largest breaches of the month, with around 1.5 billion records exposed. Hackers invaded millions of clients’ contact and account information, including names, addresses, personal property info and sensitive tax information.
With similar cases that happened throughout the year, it’s no surprise that focus intensified on safeguarding personal information. Organizations invested in robust security measures and implemented stringent protocols to ensure their data’s confidentiality (and integrity).
As certain businesses strive to regain public trust, measures like encryption, multifactor authentication and secure data storage practices are now commonplace.
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Trend 2: Stronger Privacy Regulations
Governments and regulatory bodies worldwide have taken a proactive stance on privacy issues.
New regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), have already transformed the privacy landscape. With that said, entities have further expanded and enforced privacy regulations globally.
Consider the Data Privacy Act of 2023, where entities must give consumers the ability to opt out of data collection. This is required as long as that data isn’t necessary for the entity to provide whatever product or services it offers.
The Data Privacy Act is incredibly empowering to consumers because businesses now have to be as transparent as possible about if and why they collect data. Their privacy terms and conditions must be easily understable, to boot.
On that note, organizations must take action to comply with these new or updated regulations:
- Stay on top of evolving legal requirements
- Adapt their data-handling practices
- Implement comprehensive privacy programs
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Trend 3: The Rise of Transparency
Privacy by design — a concept that promotes embedding privacy considerations into systems’ design and development — gained prominence.
In 2023, businesses emphasized incorporating privacy controls and features by default. So to ensure privacy was more or less embedded in product and service design, organizations prioritized three mechanisms:
- Data minimization
- Purpose limitation
- User consent
For example, Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) became standard practice. PIAs analyze how an organization collects, uses, shares and maintains personally identifiable information to hopefully identify and mitigate privacy risks.
Trend 4: Better Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
As we mentioned earlier, technological advancements aren’t stopping, let alone slowing down, anytime soon.
These advancements don’t merely make businesses and clients alike more concerned about privacy. They’re also the spark to finding solutions to properly address data privacy. One way is through privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), which have become invaluable tools for protecting personal information.
PET techniques (with hardware or software) include the following:
These techniques enable data analysis and processing while preserving people’s privacy. PETs have played important roles as organizations develop better strategies to both use and protect their customer and client data.
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Trend 5: More Privacy Rights for People
Consumers are becoming far more aware of their privacy rights — and educating themselves on the matter, too. Many clients and customers now demand greater control over their personal information because, well, it’s theirs.
There was a rise in privacy-conscious consumers throughout 2023. These consumers actively exercise their rights when it comes to businesses accessing, correcting, altering and even deleting their data.
User-friendly consent documents and digestible privacy policies allow consumers to better control (and know) what goes on with their data. However, this empowerment doesn’t just benefit people — it helps organizations build and maintain trust with their customer and client base.
[Related: 12 New Year’s Tech Resolutions for 2024]
Contact CMIT Solutions of Bothell To Enhance Your Business’s Data Privacy
These trends are a smart way to reflect on any specific problem areas your organization might deal with. They also serve as reminders to ramp up how you currently protect personal information. As privacy concerns and regulations grow and evolve, your business must stay nimble and continue to adapt.
So, how do you deploy the strongest defense protocols? Managed IT companies, like us at CMIT Solutions of Bothell, can combine many tools and concepts to help your company protect your networks, servers and applications.
We offer the ultimate cyber defense to protect your confidential data, with a focus on multilayered protection and proactive monitoring. You must prioritize data privacy as a fundamental principle — it’s nonnegotiable.
With our help, your organization can build a stable foundation to thrive far beyond 2023. Contact us today to get started!
Featured image via Pixabay
