Privacy can be defined in many ways depending on the perspective of the context that is being covered. Generally, privacy refers to the state of freedom from scrutiny from knowing the secrets or confidential information shared (Cox, 2019). Privacy can be extended to the situation of being free from public attention or illegal interruption. When privacy is defined by Information Technology (IT), it refers to the aspect of a firm being able to determine what data and information in a system can be shared with other parties (Ghiglieri & Waidner, 2016). In IT, privacy aims to protect the resources of a given firm from unwanted exposure to third parties and, therefore, serves as a mitigation measure towards manipulating data and information.
In legal terms, privacy refers to the right to make an important decision that concerns personal issues free from state compulsion, pressure, and regulation. Therefore, privacy is related to the welfare of autonomy, self-determination, and self-respect. However, under the common law, privacy means the right to be alone and have the liberty to conceal things from other parties (Cox, 2019). Privacy is a fundamental right responsible for underpinning human dignity and liberty to communicate in the public domain.
There are differences in the perceptions of privacy by the average person and that of law where they all have an impact on risk assessment for privacy protection. The variation in the ideas makes privacy a contradictory subject since both the average person and the law take privacy as an all-inclusive matter instead of dealing with a specific instance (Ghiglieri & Waidner, 2016). Therefore, the outcome may be affected if the terms used in risk assessment fail to concretely analyze the circumstances.
The best practices for protecting the privacy of information handled can be achieved in various ways. The US federal government can conform to this by having in place privacy risk management and compliance documentation (Jamieson & Salinas, 2018). It means the government can leverage the existing resources to identify programs that are privacy compliant. For example, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and Certification and Accreditation (CA) are the resources that can be used. When FISMA and CA are applied, the federal government plays a vital role by acting as a subject body to identify privacy-conforming matters (Cox, 2019). The two tools are key in spotting programs for assessing risks and implementing privacy in the systems and programs available.
The other practice that can be applied when essential information has been collected and retained by the federal government is information security. The security responsibilities include the need to have the collected information safeguarded from access by unwanted parties through various metrics (Seigneur Nininahazwe, 2018). First, records containing sensitive data and information should be maintained by approved retention and disposition from the parties involved in the process (Jamieson & Salinas, 2018). Suppose the data that the federal government collects and maintains is approved. In that case, there should be comprehensive privacy policies to enhance confidentiality, data availability, and integrity of the personnel handling the data.
The last element of practice that can be utilized in handling data and information to ensure privacy is the practice of incident response. Planning for privacy incidents requires the federal government to develop the reporting and notification aspects for all levels (Seigneur Nininahazwe, 2018). That means responders will be the senior leadership, the division heads for given programs, legal counsel, and other management bodies. It requires the government to educate all the parties on how to report privacy incidents. Any privacy incident program must take the potential for conforming with security breaches. For example, there may be programs that provide publications on privacy incident reporting essentials and how risk measures can be practiced in such situations.
Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA) is a tool that agencies apply sufficient defenses for personal information confidentiality to implement a citizen-centered relationship with the government. It is a requirement that government agencies conduct PIAs for IT systems that are information-related, especially to the members of the public (“Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)”, 2021). The US federal government completes PIAs to ensure that system and program handlers are responsible and liable for the appropriate handling of privacy matters. Through PIA, the US federal government assures the public that their confidential information is protected (Ghiglieri & Waidner, 2016). Every federal IT system should have PIA to provide basic documentation of the linear personal information that the systems contained.
The benefits that citizens can gain from the utilization of PIAs by the federal IT systems include reducing the cost of managing databases and other files that individuals own. People are assured of safety in their information and will not incur the cost of imposing other methodologies for protecting data (“Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)”, 2021). The other benefit is that the citizens are protected from public criticism when data is exposed to public opinion. Therefore, individuals will continue working in the development of information-based enterprises that can enhance growth and expansion. The other advantage that the US citizens benefit from the protection of privacy by the federal government is the potential to have innovative ideas concerning data and information (“Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)”, 2021). It means that people will have the liberty to critically think about strategies for protecting data.
References
Cox, K. (2019). The legal landscape of consumer/ user data privacy and current policy discussions. The Current Privacy Landscape, 5(297), 15-37. Web.
Ghiglieri, M., & Waidner, M. (2016). HbbTV security and privacy: issues and challenges. IEEE Security & Privacy, 14(3), 61-67. Web.
Jamieson, T., & Salinas, G. (2018). Protecting human subjects in the digital age: Issues and best practices of data protection. Survey Practice, 11(2), 1-10. Web.
Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA). (2021). Www2.ed.gov. Web.
Seigneur Nininahazwe, F. (2018). Best practices to protect your privacy against search engines data mining – a review. Internet of Things and Cloud Computing, 6(3), 56. Web.