Data privacy can be categorized into the part of data/information security that deals with the proper administration of data while maintaining permission, warning and regulatory obligations. In terms of Information technology, it relates to the ability of an organization to determine what digital data in a computer system can be shared with third parties. 

Data privacy has always been important, it's the reason why people protected their data earlier by putting locks on their filing cabinets. But, with data becoming digitized, we tend to share more information online therefore data privacy is gaining more credibility. In this guide, we'll learn why data privacy is essential, and how it is related to data security. After that, we will take a look at the data privacy laws and legislation in several US industries. We'll also provide you with a few pointers on ways to improve your data privacy at both individual and business level.

Data privacy concern

Data privacy concerns generally arrive whenever an individual's identifiable information is collected, stored, or used. An enterprise generally possesses personal information of millions of its customers. It mostly contains customer's private data so it is important that customer's personal information remains protected to keep the company's reputation intact.  But data privacy isn’t just a concern for business, an individual also has a lot at stake when it comes to the privacy of his data. More specifically, practical data privacy concerns are not as black and white. Data privacy relates to how a piece of personal information or data should be given out based on its relevance. 

For example, you likely are not gonna worry about sharing your name with a stranger, but you wouldn't share any information apart from that, not until you know them better. But our approach is completely different when it comes to opening a bank account where we have to give out more than just a name. 

Why is data privacy important?

A data breach in the government sector can, for instance, put certain top-secret information in the hands of a different nation. A leak of corporation data can put important data in the hands of a competitor's company. Same goes for school and hospital data, which in wrong hands can be misused. 

There are two primary reasons why data privacy is one of the most significant matters in our industry. In terms of assets, data is the most important one a company holds. The data economy has experienced an enormous rise in recent years and companies greatly value collecting, sharing and utilising data. In fact, tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon have built empires by utilising the data economy. The businesses request consent from their customers and partners that is vital to build trust and form a transparent relationship.  That way they can live by their privacy policies and be accountable for the data they have collected on their customers to avoid any kind of privacy failure. 

The other reason is that privacy is the right of a person to be free from unwanted infiltration. To safely live in one's space and openly express one's views in a private environment is crucial for living in a democratic nation. 

Data Privacy and Data Protection

Data privacy and data protection are different things but very closely related to each other, so much that the people often think of them as the same concept. However, the differences between data privacy and data protection are integral in knowing how one is related to others. In short, data protection is defined as protecting companies data against unauthorized access. While data privacy is about establishing authorized access, i.e. who can access it and who can define it. Another way of understanding it is by considering data protection a technical issue and data privacy a legal one. 

The differences matter for regulating privacy and cybersecurity issues as ensuring data protection will not solve the problem. That is the reason why there are legal implications associated with privacy laws to ensure data privacy. You can have data protection without data privacy, but you cannot have data privacy without data protection.

Data Privacy vs. Data Security

Many organizations commonly assume that keeping private data secure from cybercriminals and hackers means their company is following data privacy regulations. Which is not the case as protecting data from compromise by outer attacks and malicious insiders is a part of Data security. While Data Privacy checks the authenticity of data collected, shared, and used. 

One can go to great lengths, to protect personally identifiable information (PII), the data could be encrypted and highly restricted. But if the information (PII) is collected without following the proper privacy guidelines, then you could be violating data privacy regulations. Privacy protection protocols are still vulnerable to authorized people who might access the PII and misuse it.  The point is even though the data is secure, data security cannot ensure the privacy of personal data. 

Data privacy laws in US and around the globe 

Laws and acts related to data privacy have been enacted in a sectorial manner, and may not apply to every country as different industries or trades in the country have their own data privacy laws . These regulatory restrictions have been created in acknowledgement to the needs of a specific sector or part of the population. 

• US Privacy Act of 1974 - To maintain restrictions on the data held by government agencies.
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) - Ensures patient confidentiality for all healthcare-related data and information.
• General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) - Aims to protect personal data of EU citizens. 
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) - It protects children data and gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their kids under the age of 12. 
• Australia's Privacy Principles (APP) - Privacy law in Australia that consists of 13 policies that serve as guidelines for handling personal information.
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) - Protects financial nonpublic personal information(NPI) and regulates the use of private information by financial institutes. 
• Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) - To extend government restrictions on wiretaps and include transmissions of electronic data.
• Video Privacy Protection Act -  Prevents wrongful disclosure of an individual's identity in a video.  
• Data protection Act 2018 - The U.K. is currently regulated by the Data Protection Act 2018  that makes provision about the processing of personal data.
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) - Restricts how companies collect and use the data of consumers residing in  the state of California. 

Final say 

As a consumer, you need to be aware of where your data is being kept and how it is used by different companies. Make sure that you don’t give up more personal data than you need to. To an extent,  your data privacy is in your own hands, and you have the right to share it accordingly. As a corporate or business, data privacy becomes arguably more important. Make sure you meet all the legal obligations before you handle, store, and use the personal data of your consumers.  Not following data privacy policies could lead to facing unfavourable consequences. Outcomes of falling victim to hacking activities due to weak data security could be even worse, you not only suffer from revenue loss but also lose your customer's trust. 

That is the reason why we provide advanced security features to our custom mobile app development and custom web design and development services at Evon Technologies. We use the latest security protocols for data transmission & sharing, and code the solutions using the latest security standards. We follow data privacy compliance and meet all the legal responsibilities to ensure that your confidential information/data is accessed by the authorised people only. Get in touch with us for gaining more insights on our data privacy and security methods.