Blog

Data Privacy Week is an annual campaign to spread awareness about data privacy and educate individuals on how to secure their personal information. This year’s theme is “Take Control of Your Data." All your online activity generates a trail of data. Websites, apps, and services collect data on your behaviors, interests, and purchases.

While it's true that you cannot control how each byte of data about you and your family is shared and processed, you are not helpless! In many cases, you can control how you share your data with a few simple steps. Remember, your data is precious, and you deserve to be selective about who you share it with!

Here are some simple, easy tips you that will help you manage your data privacy: 

1. Know The Trade Off  Between Privacy And Convenience 
Nowadays, when you download a new app, open a new online account, or join a new social media platform, you will often be asked for access to your personal information before you can even use it! This data might include your geographic location, contacts, and photos.

For these businesses, this personal information about you is tremendously value – and you should think about if the service you get in return is worth the data you must hand over, even if the service is free.

Make informed decisions about sharing your data with businesses or services:

Is the service, app, or game worth the amount or type of personal data they want in return?
Can you control your data privacy and still use the service?
Is the data requested even relevant for the app or service (that is, "why does a Solitaire game need to know all my contacts")?
If you haven't used an app, service, or account in several months, is it worth keeping around knowing that it might be collecting and sharing your data?

2. Adjust Settings To Your Comfort Level
For every app, account, or device, check the privacy and security settings. These should be easy to find in a Settings section and should take a few moments to change. Set them to your comfort level for personal information sharing; generally, we think it's wise to lean on the side of sharing less data, not more.

You don't have to do this for every account at once, start small and over time you'll make a habit of adjusting all your settings to your comfort. The National Cybersecurity Alliance has in-depth, free resources like the Manage Your Privacy Settings page that lets you check the settings of social media accounts, retail stores, apps and more.

3. Protect Your Data
Data privacy and data security go hand-in-hand. Along with managing your data privacy settings, follow some simple cybersecurity tips to keep it safe. We recommend following the Core 4:

1. Create long (at least 16 characters), unique passwords for each account and device. Use a password manager to store each password – maintaining dozens of passwords securely is now easier than ever.
2. Turn on multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever it is permitted – this keeps your data safe even if your password is compromised.
3. Turn on automatic device, software, and browser updates, or make sure you install updates as soon as they are available.
4. Learn how to identify phishing messages, which can be sent as emails, texts, or direct messages.

For more information about Data Privacy Week and how to get involved, visit here. 

About Data Privacy Week

Data Privacy Week began as Data Privacy Day in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the Jan. 28, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. NCA, the nation's leading nonprofit, public-private partnership promoting cybersecurity and privacy education and awareness, leads the effort in North America each year. For more information, visit here.

About the National Cybersecurity Alliance

The National Cybersecurity Alliance is a non-profit organization on a mission to create a more secure, interconnected world. We advocate for the safe use of all technology and educate everyone on how best to protect ourselves, our families, and our organizations from cybercrime. We create strong partnerships between governments and corporations to amplify our message and to foster a greater “digital” good. For more information, please visit https://staysafeonline.org.

Sources: National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA), staysafeonline.org