In a conversation, you may choose what extent of information you share about yourself — you might choose to tell how much you paid for a shoe, but not the numbers of the card you used to pay for it. Did you know this choice is also available online? That’s why it’s important to know what data privacy is.
In this article, you’ll learn: what is data privacy, why it’s so important, how legislation can help you, and more. Join us in taking this step to empower yourself to protect your personal information!
What is data privacy?
Data privacy is the appropriate handling of sensitive and confidential data. Some of the main concerns for data privacy are protecting the confidentiality of the data and meeting legal requirements in regards to handling the data.
The most referred type of data is personal data. It pertains to your financial data, social security information ,and other types of sensitive, confidential data, such as your name, contact information, location, and online behavior. It’s all the data that helps paint an accurate picture of your life.
Why is data privacy important?
The same way your data is personal, the access to it is also based on personal preferences. With proper data privacy practices, individuals should be the ones to determine who can access their personal data.
Data privacy is the ability of an individual to determine when, how, and to what extent personal information about them is shared with or communicated to others. When you choose what to share, you are taking control of your life as a consumer.
In an increasingly digital world, it has become even more important to have control over your personal data — and to know that companies are properly handling your personal data. In some parts of the world, data privacy is even considered a fundamental human right.
Data privacy vs Data security
Data privacy is one of three aspects of data protection: traditional data protection, data security, and data privacy. All three aspects are important in protecting the data from external and internal threats. They refer to the actions listed below:
- traditional data protection: backup and restored copies, archiving, physical infrastructure, etc;
- data security: access control, encryption, authentication, data loss prevention, etc;
- data privacy: policies, legislation, data governance ,and third-party contracts.
Thus, we can correlate data privacy vs data security: while the first one concerns the big picture type of actions, such as policies and legislations, the second one is about localized actions that can be done within an organization.
Frequently, businesses get confused about the difference between data security and data privacy. Actions taken by a company to protect sensitive data from hackers and attackers fall into data security, but don’t guarantee that the company is compliant with data privacy regulations and guidelines.
To satisfy that need, some companies recruit professionals that hold a data privacy certification. This means that a professional is trained, skilled and knowledgeable on the proper handling of data.
This relates to the legal aspect of handling sensitive data: while data security is more about the technical framework of keeping the data available and secure, data privacy is a legal concept and has specific legislation, as discussed below.
Legislation
In most parts of the world, data privacy is a legal concept. Thus, there is specific legislation concerning data privacy. This is especially important if we consider that the consumer is usually the most vulnerable part of a transaction, and for this reason, they need to be protected by legislation.
As technology has evolved to improve data collection, governments have become more focused on passing laws to regulate data collection and data privacy. Data privacy law specifies what is data privacy, how the data is collected, shared, and used.
In the US, some of the most important data privacy laws are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. They are focused on:
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates how personal healthcare data should be handled;
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act aims to protect the privacy of children under 13; it determines that companies have to ask for parents’ permission to collect data on children, and specifies the handling and processing of this data;
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires that consumers be warned about what personal data is collected and gives consumers control over their personal data.
How to know if your data is protected
Just as important as knowing what data privacy is, it’s knowing if your data is being protected. Most companies’ websites these days specify how they collect, store and share your data.
At OneBlinc we have a strong commitment to protect your data. OneBlinc has a thorough Privacy Policy specifying which types of data are collected when accessing the website and when signing up for a service.
There are also opt-out procedures for anyone not interested in sharing cookies and other data with third-party advertisers, targeted advertising, third-party tracking, and third-party accounts.
Because your privacy and security are so important to us, at OneBlinc we have electronic, physical, and administrative safeguards in place that comply with federal regulations for your protection. These data security measures seek to protect your information both online and offline from disclosure, alteration, or unauthorized use.
About us
Unexpected things happen more often than we would like them to. That’s why OneBlinc is here to help, whether you have an emergency or just need that extra cash to go through the end of the month. We believe in people, and we understand that everyone might need money someday, somehow.
