Do You Understand What Data Security And Privacy Are?

We commonly see or read articles that utilise the terms “data security” and “data privacy” interchangeably. But are these actually synonyms, or do they signify significantly distinct ideas?

In this article, we’ll briefly discuss their parallels and contrasts. We’ll also see how they are mutually dependent on one another.

Table of Contents

Data Privacy

When personal information is handled, processed, stored, and used properly, it is referred to as data privacy or information privacy. The rights of an individual are prioritised in this situation.

Data privacy is often concerned with ensuring that any organisation handles, saves, or transmits sensitive data lawfully and with the owner’s authorisation.

Data Security

Personal data must be secured or protected from unauthorised third-party access in order to be considered secure. In this instance, the data is correct, trustworthy, and also user-friendly.

Securing sensitive data is connected to data security. You don’t need to be a security analyst, auditor, or IT specialist to figure it out. The difference between data privacy and security starts with who or what they are defending against.

Why isn’t our information safe?

We feel liberated when using applications, especially social media apps like Facebook and WhatsApp, which is abnormal given that we log in on various devices, a situation that is not good for our personal data or the data of the contacts connected through it.

Example: In 2018, Cambridge Analytica, a corporation that uses data as its primary raw material for processing in various methods like mining and analysis, was founded. They were determined to be at fault for Facebook’s role in the scandal surrounding the use of user data for campaigns (election campaigns), which was used to assess a person’s personality through their usage of the applications. Knowing the number of votes for a given party and for political advertisements was the main result.

As the world’s most valuable resource, data is now more important than ever to manage and safeguard because data breaches are commonplace, hackers are buying and selling stolen identities, and selling data is a new method to make money.

The most important aspect of working online is data security, which should never be compromised. Despite this, data theft still occurs and will continue to occur because there is no way to prevent it completely. However, it may be somewhat managed by using a variety of strategies.

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Exactly how will data be secured?

Utilize firewalls.
Implement encrypted systems.
Utilize a VPN.
Don’t ever grant permission to outsiders.
Change your passwords frequently and choose strong ones.
As much as possible, public networks like airport and metro WiFi should be avoided.
When logging into other devices, be suspicious.

The following are the most typical worries about data privacy:

Managing agreements or regulations.
implementing a controlling rule or law (like General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR).
management by a third party.

In general, the right to privacy refers to the freedom from invasion and inquisitive eyes or the right to one’s own company.

Most people will agree that it is a fundamental human right and one of the guiding principles of human dignity because it is guaranteed by the constitution in many industrialised nations.

Any risk analysis performed with the intention of strengthening the privacy of individuals’ personal data is done so with the goal of preserving those individuals’ rights and liberties in mind.

Difference between Data Security and Privacy.

Data security and privacy often overlap to a significant extent. For instance, encryption can be a tool for data security as well as helping to preserve data privacy.

Data privacy is concerned with ensuring that only those authorised to access the data may do so, which is the key distinction between security and privacy data. Data security focuses more on protecting against harmful attacks. Data that has been encrypted is private but may not be secure. To stop an attacker from erasing the data or using a new encryption technique to make it unreadable, encryption is not sufficient on its own.

S.No.	Data Privacy	Data Security
1	Reflecting on the importance of data and the reasons behind it is fundamental to data privacy.	Data security is essentially a reflection of how those rules were applied.
2	Data privacy regulates how information should be used, collected, kept, deleted, and stored.	The rules, procedures, and tools for protecting personal data are established by data security.
3	Data privacy requires data security as a requirement.	The primary requirement for data privacy is data security.
4	It provides a way to prevent websites, internet browsers, cable providers, and internet service providers from logging your information and browsing history.	It provides to shield you from unauthorised access to your data and personal information.
5	In essence, data privacy regulates the gathering, sharing, and use of data.	Data security essentially guards against data breaches by malevolent insiders and outside attackers.
6	Browser add-ons and extensions, password managers, encrypted messaging, private search engines, web proxies, file encryption software, and ad and tracker blockers are some examples of data privacy technologies.	Identity and access management, data loss prevention, anti-malware, anti-virus, event management, and data masking software are all examples of data security tools.
7	The format for encryption is absent.	Encryption and breach response are part of it.

Security And Privacy of Data on Social Media

The phrase “social media” isn’t really unfamiliar to us. We could also say that social media, food, water, and air are all we need to survive in our daily lives as humans. Because of our dependence, we frequently disclose every detail about ourselves on social media. But pause for a second and ask yourself, Are we really secure? Is there any privacy here?

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No, we are deluding ourselves into believing that even though we open up so much on social media, we still maintain our privacy and security. Do we really care that we don’t even read the Terms and Conditions agreement before we sign it on any social media platform? Some of us are so fixated on flaunting our lives that we share posts.

Why are we so ready to have our lives so heavily regulated? These inquiries go on forever. However, we must consider this carefully and begin to carry out the order. First, we must examine the privacy and security options that are already activated on our social media page’s settings page. You will gain knowledge about your profile’s privacy settings as a result.

As I’m sure, most of you are already aware social media applications mostly make money by selling adverts, but this is not the only way.

Take Facebook as an illustration, for instance. Facebook creates each user’s profile based on demographics, brand preferences, movies watched, etc., and uses that profile to display relevant ads, links to apps of interest, and other content.

Even your offline activities, which are not shared on the network, are all tracked by Facebook. After writing out these drawbacks, the only best course of action that comes to mind is to entirely cut yourself off from social media and delete all of your accounts. But because we rely so much on social media to stay in touch with our loved ones these days, we cannot afford to remove these accounts.

Here is some advice to assist you in keeping a certain amount of privacy on social networking platforms:

Read the terms and conditions completely. I understand that it’s a challenging and time-consuming endeavour, but at least have a look.
Examine the privacy options of your account. Do not rely on the default settings.
Please refrain from clicking on pointless posts such as “Find which celebrity you look like,” “Check your death day,” and others.
On your phone and laptop, install a reliable antivirus programme.
Disable your location. However, disabling the location will at least cause the least damage. Some websites even keep tabs on your offline actions.
Set up Security Answers as soon as possible.
Keep your account locked out at all times.

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Now that we’ve covered privacy concerns in online social media in such detail let’s look at security issues. As was mentioned, it’s critical for everyone joining a social network to look past the default settings. Standard settings are the least secure.

The following is a list of a few security risks our social media accounts may encounter:

1. Most social networking sites contain information like an email address or birthdate. By leveraging social media accounts, a hacker can access your email account and get all the information they need. Not all information must be kept confidential. Just remember to exercise the following cautions:

Set secure passwords at all times – Avoid choosing simple passwords created from information that is readily accessible from social media accounts, such as your birthday or a child’s name, etc.
Avoid giving away too much information in posts – Use caution when posting things online. This is how information is obtained by thieves just by reading your postings. They gather so much data that they might even be able to access your account.
Keep your whereabouts a secret – Try to either leave the location section empty or assign it to an incorrect place.
Avoid using social media accounts on unreliable networks and devices in public places like hotels, coffee shops, and hospitals.
When given by online browsers, do not choose to remember passwords or passphrases for social media accounts.

2. URL shorteners have become more prevalent with the rise of social media like Twitter. Twitter posts are limited to 280 characters. Consequently, the size and volume of information that may be shared are constrained. Since complete URLs are hidden, shortened URLs may deceive visitors into visiting dangerous websites. To prevent being hacked, it is advisable to keep the following in mind before clicking on shortened URLs.

Mark the abbreviated URL with the pointer before clicking a link. This will display the entire URL and give you a sense of where it actually points.
To determine whether the link is secure or not, check the shortened URL using one of the online services like Sucuri.
Use tools like URL Void or MyWOT to determine the link’s level of safety.

3. Don’t disclose too much information online. Will you ever announce your upcoming vacation to a certain location while standing in the centre of a crowd? Why then do you share every single aspect of your journey on social media, including the fact that you are “Traveling to London, the United Kingdom from Air India Business Lounge New Delhi”? It’s obvious that you are handing criminals your house keys. When posting any information online, try to take the following precautions:

Do not publish your precise trip itinerary or plans. Never state the time or date precisely.
Never share pictures of your journey online. Once you’ve returned home from your vacation, try to post pictures.
Try to avoid going online while on vacation.
Use the strictest privacy settings to restrict access to your images and status updates to certain groups, such as family and chosen friends.

Conclusion

From the aforementioned, we learned how far away from everything that would not have been so easily taken, at least in terms of security and privacy of our personal information. If you believe someone has your information and is using it, you have the legal right to request it. As a result, it is entirely up to individuals to account for this.

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Do You Understand What Data Security and Privacy are?