Data privacy is a leading challenge of the 21st century. Today, we all face the risk of personal privacy exposure. Nearly 2.7 billion data records were stolen in 2018 around the world. Experts project that data privacy breaches will continue to grow — nearly doubling by 2023.
Many people have already had their personally identifiable information (PII) stolen more than once, making them easier targets for further hacks. History shows that personal data breaches lead to identity theft, which can be devastating. This reality challenges each of us to do everything we can to avoid becoming another statistic in the ongoing data privacy cyber war.
Data Privacy Day is an international initiative supported by the National Cyber Security Alliance to help reverse the risks to personal safety online. Held every January 28th, the event is designed to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices in the U.S., Canada, Israel, and 47 European countries.
“Millions of people are unaware of and uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected, and shared in our digital society. Data Privacy Day aims to inspire dialogue and empower individuals and companies to take action,” states the StaySafeOnline.org website.
Data Privacy Day’s goal is to empower individuals and businesses to respect privacy, safeguard data, and enable trust. It encourages individuals and business to take these four actions:
- Get involved at home, at work and in your community. Create a culture of privacy at work. Talk to your family and friends about protecting personal information and how to stay safe online. Share privacy knowledge at local schools, senior care facilities, faith-based organizations, and on community bulletin boards.
- Attend the Data Privacy Day 2020 event online. A live streaming event, called “A Vision for the Future,” will include four panel discussions with multiple data privacy leaders discussing these topics: privacy around the globe, CCPA and the wake of privacy legislation in the U.S., a world without privacy, and going beyond privacy compliance.
- Update your privacy settings. View and update your privacy and security settings on all devices and popular online services. StaySafeOnline.org provides a list of links to leading social networks, e-commerce sites, web browsers, and more.
- Become a champion. Champions represent individuals, businesses, and organizations dedicated to empowering others to respect privacy, safeguard data, and enable trust. The website lists hundreds of champions, including nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, and companies across a breadth of industries.
Spirion is one of the Champions — and has been a champion for data privacy protection since its founding in 2006 by two former information security experts at a leading U.S. consulting company. Spirion’s founders were forerunners in the fight to keep personal private data secure by creating the world’s first data-discovery technology for data-at-rest. Today, Spirion delivers the most accurate data discovery and classification solution on the planet, already deployed by thousands of organizations. This is furthering the founders’ mission — to protect people’s privacy by preventing sensitive data breaches around the globe.
Follow Data Privacy Day events on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at #PrivacyAware.
Register for our #DataPrivacyDay webinar “The California Consumer Privacy Act: Your Questions, Answered” on January 28th at 1:00 PM ET/10 AM PT
