Personal privacy in the digital age is a critical aspect that requires constant attention and proactive measures on the part of people with some online activity, asset, or information.
What is personal privacy?
Personal privacy refers to an individual’s ability to control information about their life and decide what data can be shared, under what conditions, when, and with whom.
Maintaining personal privacy has become increasingly challenging in a world where technology and connectivity are ubiquitous. Privacy is not just a matter of keeping information protected but of ensuring everyone has the right to decide how their information is used and who has access to it.
National and international legislation protects individuals’ privacy rights, focusing on personal online privacy. These regulations are the basis of the right to personal privacy and of each person’s responsibility to ensure one’s privacy and to exercise and demand the necessary actions to protect it to the level that each one considers.
Characteristics of Digital Personal Privacy
Digital personal privacy is characterized by several key elements that must be formalized together to guarantee it in the terms set out by law.
- Data Control. People should be able to control what information is collected, how it is used, and with whom it is shared. This includes access to their own data and the ability to correct inaccurate information or delete information they do not wish to share.
- Transparency. Organizations that collect data must be transparent about their practices. This involves informing users about the data collected, its purpose, and how it will be protected.
- Information security. Protecting personal data is critical to preventing unauthorized access, identity theft, and other forms of abuse. Appropriate security measures, such as encryption and strong passwords, must be guaranteed.
- Informed consent. The individual must give explicit consent before personal data is collected or shared. This consent must be informed, which means that the individual must clearly understand what their data will be used for and their consent’s implications regarding their privacy.
- Right to erasure. In some cases, individuals should have the right to have their data removed from databases and systems where it is no longer needed or where consent has been withdrawn.
Personal Information Privacy Concerns and Crimes in the Digital Age
The digital age has brought with it several concerns and crimes that affect the privacy of personal information. Some of the main problems to be addressed are:
Artificial intelligence algorithms
Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms analyze large volumes of data to identify threats and make decisions. While this capability is beneficial in many ways, it also poses privacy risks. Algorithms can collect and analyze personal data without the user’s knowledge or consent, which can lead to discrimination, loss of privacy, and misuse of information.
Mass privacy surveillance
Mass surveillance is the extensive collection and monitoring of data on individuals or groups by governments, corporations, or other entities. This surveillance can include data collection from telecommunications, social media, security cameras, and more.
Mass surveillance is likely to invade people’s privacy and undermine trust in the institutions that collect and use this data.
Impersonation
Phishing occurs when someone steals personal information, such as names, social security numbers, credit card information, and images, to impersonate someone else.
This crime can have serious consequences, including financial loss, the need for legal defense, reputational damage, and difficulty accessing essential services.
Scams and frauds
Online scams and frauds constantly threaten personal privacy. Cybercriminals use various tactics to trick people into giving them access to their personal and financial data, including phishing, vishing (phone scams), and smishing (text message scams).
Hate crimes
Hate crimes in the digital environment include harassment, threats, and defamation directed at individuals or groups based on characteristics such as race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. Not only do these crimes violate victims’ privacy, but they also have a significant impact on their emotional and psychological well-being.
Crimes against privacy
Privacy crimes include the unauthorized disclosure of personal information, such as intimate data, images, or videos, without the consent of the person concerned. It can happen through hacks, vindictive people, or even dishonest employees with access to personal data. The consequences are often devastating, affecting the victim’s reputation, personal relationships, and mental health.
How to protect personal privacy
Protecting personal privacy online requires awareness of the need and a proactive approach. Some practical measures to implement such protection are:
- Education and awareness. Staying informed and up-to-date on privacy threats and best practices for protecting personal information is the first step in knowing what protection tools and routines to adopt.
- Use of privacy tools. Privacy tools, such as secure browsers, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), and encryption software, designed to protect online data, help keep online communications and activities private.
- Social media privacy settings. It is advisable to adjust the privacy settings on all social media accounts to limit who can view and access personal information and to review and update those settings regularly. Be aware of the actual scope we seek or intend and the nature of the account (professional account versus personal accounts) and adjust the information dumped and privacy to them
- Strong passwords and multi-factor authentication. Although sometimes uncomfortable, using strong and unique passwords for each online account is essential. In addition, multi-factor authentication (MFA) should be enabled whenever possible. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification in addition to the password.
- Review of application permissions. Review of application permissions. Before installing an application, you should carefully review the permissions it requests and make sure that they are necessary for its operation. With this information, you should limit your apps’ access to personal information as much as possible
- Monitoring suspicious activity. It is advisable to set up alerts for activities, usual or not, on financial accounts and other essential services. In addition, in the case of people of social or economic relevance, with a large amount of very sensitive data dumped on the network, it is advisable to use solutions to monitor online personal information and digital assets to detect possible privacy threats that involve their criminal use
- Be alert to suspicious emails, messages, and links. You should never open emails or messages from unknown senders or click on links that you are not 100% sure of. Cybercriminals use phishing techniques to trick people into stealing their personal information.
- Right to erasure. If someone considers that a company should no longer have his or her personal data, he or she can and should request that it be deleted. Many legislations, such as the GDPR in Europe, grant this right to individuals.
Qondar: Enthec’s platform that helps you protect your privacy
Qondar Personal Threat Watcbots is the innovative solution developed by Enthec to respond to the growing need for online protection of individual personal privacy. Qondar continuously and automatically monitors people’s sensitive information and digital assets to protect personal privacy and prevent criminal or harmful use.
Thanks to this solution, the protected person receives real-time alerts of leaks and public exposures of their sensitive data so that they can remediate them and prevent them from being used criminally against them.
Contact us to learn more about how Qondar can help you protect your privacy or that of relevant people in your organization.