Introduction

In today’s digital era, technical teams and IT professionals are not the only ones who need to worry about cybersecurity. The reality is that security, safety, and privacy are issues that everyone needs to understand, especially those who work in communications. This post will help you to know the difference between security and privacy, and why they are important to you and to your organization

What is the Difference between Security and Privacy?

Security is about the safeguarding of data, whereas privacy is about the safeguarding of user identity. The specific differences, however, are more complex, and there can certainly be areas of overlap between the two. Security refers to protection against the unauthorized access of data. We put security controls in place to limit who can access the information.

Privacy is harder to define, in part because user-specific details can also be secure data. Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.

When something is private to a person, it usually means that something is inherently special or sensitive to them.

For example, hospital and clinic staff use secure systems to communicate with patients about their health, instead of sending information via personal email accounts. This type of data transmission is an example of security. On the other hand, privacy provisions might limit patient health record access to specific hospital staff members, such as doctors, nurses, and medical assistants. Privacy might also stipulate when users can access specific information (i.e. business hours only).

The Importance of Security

Although concepts of security and privacy are tangled, we know that it is possible to have security without privacy, but impossible to have privacy

without security.

As technology advances, and use of technology increases, we become more and more dependent on it. Our dependence, however, makes us more vulnerable to security threats such as identity theft and email hacks. Information systems and the data they contain have been compromised because of inadequate security. The resulting loss of data can have meaningful consequences to individuals whose data is stored on these systems.

Unfortunately, security breaches are so common that they are almost statistically inevitable. According to a 2017 cybercrime report , over 2 billion personal records were stolen in the U.S.

The Importance of Privacy

● Privacy is the ability to control who can access information about our private life and our activities.

● Privacy is important because:

● Privacy gives us the power to choose our thoughts and feelings and who we share them with.

● Privacy protects our information we do not want shared publicly (such as health or personal finances).

● Privacy helps protect our physical safety (if our real time location data is private).

● Privacy helps protect us as individuals, and our businesses, against entities we depend on or that are more powerful than us.

Ensuring Users Feel Safe

Beyond the technical issues, your visitors should understand what they can expect from your website and digital communication channels. Because finding information can be a very personal experience for the user, it’s important for those users to have and know that they have a safe environment.

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Written by P. Grace Sumanjali, a Siliconvalley4u's student