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Data Privacy Day: citizens, pay attention to your data

28 January 2019 | Written by La redazione

On January 28th, the day established in 2006 by the EU to make users aware of the protection of their data online

In 2006, when the European Union established the Data Privacy Day, which is celebrated on January 28th, few would have bet on the fact that, 13 years later, the issue of personal data protection would have been central to the world debate.

2018 was the year of regulations, in particular with the introduction of the Gdpr, but also that of the Cambridge Analytica and Google Plus scandals. Data have become the gold of our time, and the development of technologies that “feed” of our information will only feed this “data hunt”.

Gdpr, after the chaos the first effects. The General Data Protection Regulation, better known as Gdpr, has created not a little apprehension to individuals and companies: it came into force in 2016 but became effective in May of the year recently concluded, the new EU regulation on treatment and protection of personal data was immediately the focus of attention. According to some estimates released by the EU, the Gdpr has already given some results: there would be almost 100 thousand appeals presented by citizens after the entry into force of the regulation.

When the scandal helps keep your eyes open. The implementation of the Gdpr came within a few weeks of the Cambridge Analytica scandal: the world was able to touch the potential value of the “information trails” that we leave on the web, even from a commercial point of view. We have understood how they can be used to influence global events such as political elections and how crucial it is to lay down precise rules on their narration, but above all their use.

Even Google has had to deal with a “data” scandal, which led to the closure of its social network, Google Plus. Despite the feeling is that in the political world there is still the full awareness of all this (the hearing of Mark Zuckerberg in the Senate of the United States has left more than a few perplexities), private citizens and large companies seem to have raised the level of attention on the matter.

The most common mistakes. The road to the total attention of web users to their data is still quite long and the mistakes we make online every day are many, but also easy to avoid. For this reason, precisely on the occasion of the Data Privacy Day, the security company Sophos has drawn up a ranking, a sort of top 10 of things not to do online if we care about our privacy: among these, to name a few, there is reuse the same password, keep the webcam on, or share sensitive information on the network. Obvious things, you say, but not too much if we consider that at the top of the most used password ranking online there is still the beloved “123456”.

The future: more and more data, more and more value. 2019, according to many, will be the year of artificial intelligence. Its uses are now many: from entertainment to medicine, to personal assistants and the connected devices of our homes. These systems feed on data and, at the same time, they will produce many. How will we store them all? How will we protect them? These are urgent issues and must be tackled before the situation escapes the control of users and companies: this is why the EU is working to draft joint and shared regulations on the development policy of this technology and also in Davos, during the summit of the World Economic Forum, the topic has been discussed and discussed.

First of all, however, need sensitivity and awareness: and then good Data Privacy Day to all!

La redazione
La redazione

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