Understanding the core principles of digital privacy in today's connected world
In today's digital world, understanding privacy fundamentals is essential for protecting your personal information and maintaining control over your digital footprint.
Safeguard your personal data from unauthorized access
Understand how your data is collected and used
Digital privacy refers to the protection of your personal information in the online environment. It encompasses the rights you have to control your personal data, how it's collected, used, and shared by companies, governments, and other entities.
Privacy is a fundamental human right. In the digital age, your personal data has become a valuable commodity that companies and other entities seek to collect, analyze, and monetize. Here's why protecting your privacy matters:
Every time you use a website, app, or online service, data about you is being collected. This includes information you actively provide (like filling out forms) and passive data collection (like tracking your browsing behavior).
A key privacy principle is data minimization—only collecting the data that's necessary for a specific purpose and deleting it when it's no longer needed.
Meaningful consent means you should be informed about what data is being collected and how it will be used before you agree to it. Consent should be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.
This approach integrates privacy protections into products and services from the beginning, rather than adding them later as an afterthought.
Unauthorized access to databases containing personal information
Monitoring your online activities across websites and services
Deceptive attempts to steal sensitive information
Using your personal information to impersonate you
Monitoring by governments, employers, or other entities
Various regulations around the world aim to protect privacy rights, including:
European Union regulation that gives individuals control over their personal data
California laws that provide residents with rights regarding their personal information
Canadian federal privacy law for private-sector organizations
Understanding privacy fundamentals is the first step toward protecting your personal information in the digital age. By being aware of how your data is collected and used, and by implementing basic privacy protection strategies, you can maintain greater control over your digital footprint and reduce privacy risks.
Explore our other privacy articles to learn more about specific privacy protection strategies: