Data privacy refers to the policies and ethics in the information technology industry, concerning the compilation and distribution of sensitive or personal identifiable information. It is a growing sphere of information management, which aims protect relevant data from being compromised by itself, or from compromising the privacy of individuals and institutions. This effect can be caused by misuse of such electrical records as healthcare and criminal justice records, particularly that which contains information about individuals, information about financial institutions and transactions, location and contact data, the Internet surfing habits, etc.
Data privacy also covers the subject of regulations and policies surrounding the issue. The issue was tackled first by The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, and then during Bill Clinton’s administration. His Information Infrastructure Task Force defined information privacy as the ability of an individual to control how their personal information can be collected, used, and revealed (Easttom & Taylor, 2011; Kang, 1998).
The most effective way to preserve private or sensible data, is to remove it from the web, or open systems. However, this method is not applicable in many cases where individuals or establishments desire to maintain their privacy, while also having access to their data and being able to use it, as it is often the case with various businesses.
Naturally, privacy in the digital world is a major concern for cyber security in most organizations. Fittingly, to mitigate abuse and protect the general citizens, regulators are beginning to establish data privacy and protection as the new default in the cyberspace, with it becoming one of the primary components of the growing and developing digital network (Rubinstein & Good, 2013).
In order to develop and maintain privacy controls to ensure compliance with privacy laws, a company needs to make sure that privacy is part of its structure by design, by clearly and concisely establishing it a one of the vital goals. Furthermore, the company needs to constantly monitor its privacy mechanisms to keep them up to date and prevent creation of loopholes (Rubinstein & Good, 2013).
In order to meet the public demand and restore the populace’s trust following the leak by Edward Snowden, which exposed companies harvesting private dat, most of the major cyber businesses have undertaken efforts to implement better privacy controls for its customers.
Google Inc. joined the trend by expanding a lot of their privacy settings, as well as setting up a website for the purpose of educating their users about the options they have, their settings’ functions and uses (Reuters, 2015).
Facebook underwent similar changes, although the company went through numerous scandals before finally introducing rigid rules and regulations on the users’ data manipulation. Advertisement companies provide the majority of the company’s income, and value the personal information about users’ interests, preferences and habits a lot. This has resulted in a number of schemes by the company in an effort to distribute the users’ information without their consent. Each attempt was quickly noticed by the public and the regulators, resulting in a swift legislative response (Laudon & Laudon, 2016).
In 2009, this forced Facebook to provide the users with tools to control the use of their information, and inform them of their rights, However, the issues continued until 2011, due to the extreme chunkiness and complexity of the options provided, yet again requiring Facebook to take action and to make their tools user-friendly, and available in a manner that would be comprehensive to the clients.
References
Easttom, C. & Taylor, J. (2011). Computer crime, investigation, and the law. Boston, Mass.: Course Technology PTR/Cengage Learning.
Kang, J. (1998). Information Privacy in Cyberspace Transactions. Stanford Law Review, 50(4), 1193-1294. doi:10.2307/1229286
Laudon, K. & Laudon, J. (2016). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, London: Pearson.
Reuters. (2015). Google increases user privacy controls.
Rubinstein, I. & Good, N. (2013). Privacy by design: A counterfactual analysis of Google and Facebook privacy incidents. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 28(2), 1333-1413.