In the recent past, many online services have been sending privacy-policy updates to their users. The reason behind is to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations enacted by European Union. This regulation gives users more control over the information they allow online companies to collect from them. Since the internet is a global thing, many websites have to adhere to E.U. regulations.

However, most of us do not bother reading the new policies and data settings. We just sign up to a service and accept terms and conditions without reading what we are signing up for. At first, our devices began to know where we love to hang out, what we love doing, and brands or products and services we use. This means that you were shown a world of things that were customized for you alone. This made it easier to order new things as the internet anticipates the item we may want.

But in the past year, there has been suspicion regarding people accessing personal information and using it to their advantage. One such issue was the one on Cambridge Analytica. This organization collected personal information of more than 50M Facebook users and sold it to clients, including the Trump Campaign team.

Facebook refused to categorize this as a security breach by claiming all the information was legally accessed and collected, but it agreed that the information was not supposed to be sold. There are many other cases where cases of identity theft have been reported. And this is what led us to create this post; to discuss what privacy is and why it is important.

What Is Digital Privacy?

Digital privacy is when a person can use the internet without compromising their personal information. Different people have different levels of allowances when it comes to digital privacy.

You may be comfortable sharing your name, home address, history, and place of work on the web while another person is uncomfortable with the same. Digital privacy is when the information available on the web about a person is within his/her comfort zone.

People willingly hand over their personal information to search companies and social media platforms. When you post to social media or fill a social media profiles, all of that information is stored on a site's server. The company in question might not potentially access your information, but third-party companies may access it easily.

Digital privacy, therefore, means that you can control what data is in the public and other people have no access to information you have chosen to privatize. Many online servers require users to agree to their privacy policies that cater for their entirety to use a service. However, this is an unfair privacy model. A perfect system allows users to opt-in to specific data usage or collection.

To help you understand digital privacy more, here are three sub-related categories it encompasses;

Information Privacy. In these cases, individuals should have the right or freedom to determine how their digital information is accessed, collected, and used.

Communication Privacy- this dictates that individuals should have the right and freedom to communicate digital information with the expectation that all the information they share will only be accessed by the intended recipient.

Individual privacy. This dictates that each individual has a right to exist freely online and choose what type of information they are exposed to. 

Why Is Digital Privacy Important?

We all have information we don't want to put on the public domain. It could be your medical records, bank account information, or even your history. Hiding things is acceptable. Virtually everyone doesn't want these types of information broadcasted on social networks for everyone to see. This is why we must try our best to protect our right to privacy.

By knowing your right to privacy, you will be better placed to take all the necessary measures to protect it in all ways including securing your sensitive information using passwords, be conscious of the privacy settings you are about to agree to, and install reliable security for your devices.


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