Data security is the protection of data from any unauthorized access, which can cause identity fraud and fraudulent credit card charges, or privacy invasion. This includes encryption of sensitive data by using access controls and implementing multi-factor authentication to ensure that only authorized staff have access to sensitive information, such as passwords or PINs.
Privacy protection on the contrary, concerns the right of individuals to control the information that is collected or used, shared, and shared. Users can request deletion, edit their information, or modify the way in which they use their information. It is also required to comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Both are crucial to the operation of an enterprise, despite the distinction made between privacy and security. The trust of customers is at stake when companies compromise sensitive data and expose sensitive information to unauthorised individuals. Having a solid data privacy policy and procedure can minimize the frequency of breaches, enabling organizations to avoid costly fines, penalties and lawsuits.
The first step to ensure both data privacy and security is to identify and classify all the sensitive information that an organization has that includes personally identifiable information (PII) and non-PII. This process can be assisted by conducting formal risk assessments as well as conducting regular security audits. Using a data discovery tool can be a good method of finding out the types of data available and how employees are accessing it. Data privacy and security can then be made easier by implementing a policy framework that takes into account all aspects of how an organization collects, stores data, stores, processes and shares data.