Know the Difference: Data Privacy, Protection, and Security

One thing is for sure: data privacy, data protection, and data security all play an important role in keeping sensitive information safe. However, did you know each of them have their unique characteristics and goals?

For companies collecting or handling data, privacy, security, and protection of that data should be taken seriously. They are major concerns when undertaking safeguarding sensitive data like health records, finances, and identities.

Without them, cybercriminals and hackers would have access to massive amounts of potentially damaging data. Nevertheless, not everybody understands or recognizes the difference between data privacy, data protection, and data security. Hence, the terms are often utilized improperly and confused at the same time.

So, what are data privacy, data protection, and data security?

The Definitions

Even though these terms are often used interchangeably, you will find key differences among these three.

What is Data Privacy?

Data privacy is determined as the proper use of data. When merchants or organizations use information or data given or entrusted to them, the data must be used according to the agreed uses. The Federal Trade Commission imposes penalties against organizations that have negated to guarantee the privacy of customers’ data.

There are cases when organizations have rented, disclosed, or rented volumes of the consumer data entrusted to them to other parties without getting prior consent. Failing to consider data privacy could have a bad consequence on a business’ reputation.

Two of three organizations say they experience sales delays due to data privacy issues from customers. Data privacy laws determine a privacy violation as the unauthorized access or retrieval of data related to an individual.

A basic data privacy policy typically creates the type of data a concerned party gathers, how they use it, whether that data is shared with other parties, or how long they want to keep the gathered data.

What is Data Protection?

Data protection is how a business or person protects their data. It concentrates on keeping the data assets safe from any unauthorized malicious use. Data protection is composed of technical measures and methods that guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of data.

What is Data Security?

Meanwhile, data security is often referred to as the integrity, accessibility, and confidentiality of data. In short, it is all the processes and practices in place to make sure data is not being accessed or used by unauthorized parties or people.

Data security guarantees the data is reliable and precise and is accessible when those with authorized access need it. Remember that a data security plan is composed of facets like gathering only the needed data, keeping it safe, and destroying any data that is no longer required.

Such steps will help any organization meet the legal duties of owning sensitive data.

Major Differences

You will find a certain degree of overlap between data privacy, data protection, and data security. However, there are also major differences between them as well.

Data Privacy vs. Data Protection

Data protection is all about protecting data against unauthorized access. You see, data privacy is all about authorized access—the person who has it and defines it. One way to look at it is this: data protection is a technical concern while data privacy is legal.

Such differences matter as they are made deeply into the overarching concerns of cybersecurity and privacy, both of which loom big in culture, politics, and businesses. For sectors subject to compliance standards, they will find vital legal implications connected with privacy laws and ensure data protection might not adhere to each needed compliance standard.

Data Security vs. Data Privacy

The ideal way to understand the distinction between data security and data privacy is to consider the mechanisms utilized in data privacy versus the security policy governing how data is collected, managed, and stored.

You see, enterprise security data could be robust and efficient. However, the methods by which that data was collected, stored, and distributed may violate the privacy policy. For instance, a company might make sure that sensitive data is masked, encrypted, and properly limited to authorized access only.

However, if it gathers the data incorrectly, like failing to get informed approval from the owner before the data collection, data privacy requirements have been violated, although data security stays not breached.

Data Protection vs. Data Security

The differentiation is based on the other sense of data protection that concentrates on keeping the data safe for access. In that context, data security concentrates on keeping the data safe from any form of wicked exploitation. Meanwhile, data protection could be associated to keeping the data safe so it stays accessible.

Data security handles the database protection from any actions or forces, which can be harmful to the database. It’s securing the data from the availability of unauthorized users.

Data protection can be utilized in two contexts. It could be utilized like data security, where it’s safeguarding the data from being accessed by unauthorized users. Further, data protection might also be used for safeguarding the data from the authorized user’s viewpoint, allowing the data to be accessed easily later.

Bottom Line

To sum up, while data security, data protection, and data privacy are interconnected, you will find different ways to address both.

As a reminder, data privacy complies with federal and local laws within and outside the industry to guarantee the data you are collecting and the processes behind collecting and what you do with that data is following the law.

Data security concentrates on the technology and tools needed to dissuade cybercriminals from getting their hands on the data.

Ultimately, data protection is privacy and security combined.

All three are incredibly crucial. Now that you understood the definition and differences of these three, you can better grasp why you should protect sensitive data. Remember that keeping confidential data safe from illegal or unauthorized use means paying attention to data protection, data privacy, and data security.

We hope this article helped you point in the right direction. What are your thoughts about this post? Share your insights with us by leaving your comments below.