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Data Privacy Week: Take control of your data!

Submitted by stauffeg on

As we celebrate Data Privacy Week this January 27–31, it’s an important time to reflect on our personal data. We are constantly using apps, web browsers and social media, and partaking in other online activities that collect troves of data on us. Data is collected on a global scale and can include all types of information about your physical self (e.g., biometrics, health data, etc.). The data can range from information about your personal interests or history to purchases you make online.  

One cannot control every single piece of their data being collected, but you can be more intentional about how your data is collected and used through these simple steps.  

  1. Take a data privacy self-assessment 
    How do your cyber skills rank when it comes to data privacy? Put your knowledge to the test by taking the National Privacy Test.  
  1. Familiarize yourself with the ‘privacy versus convenience’ tradeoff 
    1. Make informed decisions about sharing your data with certain businesses. 
    2. Consider the amount of information they are asking for. Weigh it against the benefits you may receive in return. 
    3. Delete unused apps. 
    4. Be wary of apps or services that require access to information that is not relevant to their services.  
  1. Adjust privacy settings to your comfort level 
    1. Check the privacy and security settings on web services and apps.  
    2. Set them to your comfort level for information sharing. 
    3. Get started with the National Cybersecurity Alliances’s Manage Your Privacy Settings page to check the settings of social media accounts, retail stores, apps and more.  
  1. Implement technical safeguards to protect your data
    1. Passwords – create long unique passwords and store them in a password manager (see IT Security's Password Managers page for more details). 
    2. MFA – enable multi-factor authentication where possible (see the Identity and Access Management webpage for more details) 
    3. Phishing – recognize and report phishing (see IT Security’s Phishing Page for more details). 
    4. Updates – configure automatic updates on your computer and smartphone and be sure to restart these devices regularly so the latest software updates can be installed and applied.