Often, you might have heard of statistics and reports stating massive amounts that large corporations have been spending on keeping their data private. Of course, they need to do it if they wish to last long in the business, right? However, as far as individual data privacy is concerned, not much is spoken directly. It’s not given much importance although every new data breach that you hear about says the same message – “You need to keep your data protected.” There is a growing concern on personal data privacy and rightly so – after all personal data for an individual is just as important as is business data for a corporate.
Here are some reasons why it matters:
When it comes to data privacy, you cannot afford to make any mistakes. Considering how humans are living in a consistent surveillance state today, maintaining privacy standards can help restrict the control of government as well as a rising violation by the Internet corporates.
The more information they gather about an individual, the easier it becomes for them to manipulate and control their lives. Collected data can provide a whole lot of insight into your sentiments on a specific topic and hence give real plausible ideas on how to make you believe something.
By accumulating an extensive amount of information, they can seamlessly make precise calculations on what you can tolerate, how’s your behavior towards specific scenarios, what’s making your life difficult currently, and more. An example is how visibly these themes have played out across the globe in elections.
Keeping your information private can help decrease manipulation and regulation risk to a great extent.
You must have a personal twist of fate or interests that you’d want to keep away from the public eye, right? A majority of people do have a hobby or such a thing that they wouldn’t want to share with anybody.
Now, how would you react if everything that you always kept concealed was exposed to the people closest to you? Scary, isn’t it? Imagine your neighbors, friends, colleagues, or even your boss knew about every aspect of your life.
This makes privacy essential. After all, you wouldn’t want someone to make a quick judgment on you basis something you do online without really knowing you and your backstory.
Whether you want a loan or are looking for a job, having personal data compromised can leave you with innumerable targeting by companies and organizations. Despite you getting all ecstatic with relevant content all-around your social media platforms and inside your email inbox, there are chances you remain aloof of the harm coming your way.
Hence, if you wish to survive in this digital age, keep in mind that it wouldn’t take enough time for your personal information in turning into a commodity. How you choose to keep the data private is what makes all the difference.
So, make sure that before dumping the data into the cloud, you’re ensuring an adequate layer of security. Whether it comes from your cloud provider or you take extra steps on your own, the underlying concept here revolves around nothing but security.
Setting boundaries is a task that can help distinguish yourself from society, both in terms of informational and physical societies. You’d surely need a place that’s free of gaze and safeguarded completely as per your own convenience.
As far as data privacy is concerned, even a single breach can lead to awkward situations and can hamper your stature. You surely wouldn’t want everybody to know everything about you, right? That’s a situation where you must pay attention to keeping the walls as high as possible.
Most of the time, people easily overlook the fact that data privacy may affect others in their association as well. Generally, they tend to consider it as a blanket statement that’s relevant to what they feel or do.
You would surely be in touch with a variety of people, be it family or friends or customers or clients. And, in case you’ve stored their private information along with your personal data, you may inadvertently break their trust if the information is leaked.
Not just the professional data, but it can be relevant if you’ve stored your friends’ or family members’ data in your platform. Therefore, when you think of data privacy, don’t forget about what you’re safeguarding and why you’re doing it in the first place.
So far, it’d be clear how your date turns out to be so critical to you, right? All those files and all those documents that you may not consider essential can act as a thin layer between your secrets and worldly exposure.
So, irrespective of the data that you’ve stored, always ensure that you’re keeping it protected online unless you wish to be pestered by telemarketers and Facebook advertising campaigns while also putting you and your inner circle’s reputation at risk.
Author Bio – Samiksha is an expert in information security management and a writer by profession at Walnut Folks. In technical writing for 6 years, she makes complex topics interesting to the general audience. She loves going on long drives in her spare time.