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 is an individual’s ability to control what personal information is shared, with whom, and under what conditions. In 2026, with daily life increasingly reliant on social media, online banking, and cloud services, protecting personal privacy is essential to preventing fraud, identity theft, and data misuse.
Maintaining personal privacy has become increasingly challenging in a world where technology and connectivity are ubiquitous. Privacy is not just about keeping information protected; it is about ensuring everyone has the right to decide how their information is used and who can access it.
National and international legislation protects individuals’ privacy rights, focusing on personal online privacy. These regulations form the basis of the right to personal privacy and each person’s responsibility to protect their privacy and to take the necessary steps to exercise and demand the actions needed to protect it to the level each person considers appropriate.
What is the difference between personal privacy and digital privacy?
Personal privacy is the broad right to decide what is known about you, both online and offline. Digital privacy is its application to the online environment: what traces you leave on social media, what data the applications you use collect, and what the algorithms that process this data can infer about you.
In practice, the two go hand in hand. A data breach, a fake social media profile, or an artificial intelligence algorithm that cross-references information without your consent may initially affect your digital privacy, but ultimately compromise your personal privacy in the broadest sense, impacting your reputation, your assets, and your peace of mind.
What are the characteristics of personal digital 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 who it is shared with. 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 abuses. Appropriate security measures, such as encryption and strong passwords, must be guaranteed.
- Informed consent. The individual must give explicit consent before collecting or sharing personal data. This consent must be informed, meaning the individual must clearly understand how their data will be used and the implications for 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.
Concerns and crimes against the privacy of personal information 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, privacy loss, and misuse of information.
You can learn more about this threat in risks of AI for people.
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
Impersonation occurs when someone uses stolen data, such as name, ID number, email address, images, or even voice, to impersonate another person. In 2026, this threat has expanded with deepfakes that can clone voice and images from a single audio or photo source, and with SIM swapping, which hijacks the phone line to bypass two-step verification.
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 person’s consent. 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 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 choosing the right protection tools and routines.
- Use of privacy tools. Using privacy tools, such as secure browsers, VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), and encryption software, designed to protect online data, helps keep online communications and activities private.
- Social media privacy settings. Adjust privacy settings on all social media accounts to limit who can see and access your personal information, and review and update them regularly. Be aware of your actual reach and the nature of your account (professional versus personal) and adjust the information you share and your privacy settings accordingly.
- Secure passwords and multi-factor authentication. Use strong, unique passwords for each online account, even if it is sometimes inconvenient. Also, enable multi-factor authentication 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. Before installing an app, carefully review the permissions it requests and ensure they are necessary for it to function. With this information, limit app access to your personal information as much as possible.
- Monitoring of suspicious activities. Set up alerts for all activity, whether routine or unusual, on financial accounts and other important services. For individuals of social or economic importance with large amounts of highly sensitive data online, use online personal information and digital asset monitoring solutions to detect potential privacy threats that could lead to misuse.
- Be alert to suspicious emails, messages, and links. Never open emails or messages from unknown senders or click on links if you are not 100% certain of their legitimacy. Cybercriminals use phishing techniques to trick people and steal their personal information.
- Right to be forgotten. If at any point you believe that a company should no longer hold your personal data, you can and should request that it be deleted. Many laws, such as the GDPR in Europe, grant individuals this right.
Qondar: Enthec’s platform that helps you protect your privacy
Qondar Personal Threat Watchbots is an innovative solution developed by Enthec to meet the growing need to protect individual privacy online. Qondar continuously and automatically monitors people’s sensitive information and digital assets to protect personal privacy and prevent criminal or harmful use.
With this solution, the protected person receives real-time alerts about leaks and public exposures of their sensitive data, so they can remediate them and prevent criminal use.
Contact us to learn more about how Qondar can help you protect your privacy or that of relevant people in your organization.
Frequently asked questions about personal privacy
What is personal privacy?
It is a person’s right to control what information about their life is shared, with whom, and under what conditions, both online and offline.
Is personal privacy the same as data protection?
Not exactly. Data protection is the legal framework (in Europe, the GDPR) that regulates how personal data is collected and processed. Personal privacy is the broader right that this legal framework protects.
What is the difference between personal privacy and digital privacy?
Personal privacy is the general concept; digital privacy is its version applied to the online environment, that is, social networks, apps, and algorithms that process your data.
How can I protect my personal privacy online?
Adjust privacy settings on social networks, use unique passwords with multi-factor authentication, review app permissions, and, if your public exposure is high, rely on a continuous monitoring tool like Qondar.
What is the right to be forgotten?
It is the right, enshrined in the GDPR, to request that an organization delete your personal data when it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or when you withdraw your consent.
