January 28th is Data Privacy Day, an annual and international effort to raise awareness about the importance of data protection an privacy. Below, the following cybersecurity experts have provided the following insight about this important day and how crucial it is for people and organizations alike to protect their data.
Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech:
“Data privacy used to be about protecting your private information from hackers, criminals, and data brokers. Now we can add AI to that list. AI programs scrape as much data as they can from public sources to train their algorithms. As a result, personal info can be included in an AI’s response to a prompt, either intentionally or unintentionally. AI significantly reduces the barriers of finding and collecting information, making it easier for criminals to abuse personal data. I recommend disallowing search engines and other bots from scraping your social media accounts if it’s an option, and remove as much identifying personal information from your profiles as possible. Use a data removal service like Incogni or PrivacyBee to get your data out of the hands of data brokers.”
Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Champion at Pixel Privacy:
“It’s important for users to take control of their data privacy. I strongly recommend contacting data brokers to have your information removed from their servers. Data brokers are popular targets for hackers, putting all of the data (your data) on the brokers’ servers at risk. While it can be a time consuming process, it is worth it in the long run. If you are pressed for time, subscribe to a service like Incogni, who will contact the data brokers on your behalf, while keeping you informed of their progress.”
“AI is also a rising threat to data privacy. As the use of AI rises, so does the threat to customers’ data. Organizations must take steps to ensure that they put enough security in place that customer data is not inadvertently shared.”
“We continue to see misconfigured data buckets on cloud storage providers like AWS expose data to hackers. Several times, unprotected databases on AWS and other cloud providers have exposed customer and company data to the world, simply because the security protections are misconfigured. This has to stop.”
Carlos Aguilar Melchor, chief scientist, cybersecurity at SandboxAQ
“Privacy Day highlights the importance of safeguarding personal information and advancing secure systems in an increasingly interconnected world. We are seeing organizations across the globe push toward a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) strategy, which underscores a shift to “never trust, always verify” principles, enhancing data security and resilience against cyber threats. Simultaneously, the ongoing transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is crucial to future-proofing encryption against the potential risks posed by quantum computing, ensuring privacy and security in the digital age. We are proud to be contributing to these initiatives through cryptography modernization, and to reflect a proactive approach to evolving privacy challenges.”
Jimmy Astle, Senior Director of Detection Enablement at Red Canary:
The rise of generative AI has brought data privacy to the forefront of global conversations. These AI models, trained on vast amounts of internet-scraped data, have ignited concerns about consent and transparency. Questions are being asked about whether individuals and organizations should be informed if their data is being used in this way.
It’s clear our current privacy laws are struggling to keep pace with the evolution of technology. However, while generative AI adds complexity, it doesn’t eclipse existing data privacy concerns that we’re already grappling with. In fact, the most pressing challenges still stem from widespread data breaches and apps that exploit personal data for profit.
What GenAI has done though is introduce new dimensions to these existing challenges. For example, we’re seeing a rise in AI-driven SaaS tools that collect and process user data. Technology vendors are increasingly offering opt-out options for their AI features to safeguard user privacy, but this underscores a larger need for more clarity around how data is being used.
The path forward demands a balance of adaptability, transparency, and regulation. Organizations must take proactive steps to safeguard privacy, including clear communication around data practices and investment in privacy-preserving technologies. Regulators must also work closely with the technology industry to craft policies that protect individuals without hindering progress.
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This entry was posted on January 28, 2025 at 8:40 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Today Is Data Privacy Day
January 28th is Data Privacy Day, an annual and international effort to raise awareness about the importance of data protection an privacy. Below, the following cybersecurity experts have provided the following insight about this important day and how crucial it is for people and organizations alike to protect their data.
Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech:
“Data privacy used to be about protecting your private information from hackers, criminals, and data brokers. Now we can add AI to that list. AI programs scrape as much data as they can from public sources to train their algorithms. As a result, personal info can be included in an AI’s response to a prompt, either intentionally or unintentionally. AI significantly reduces the barriers of finding and collecting information, making it easier for criminals to abuse personal data. I recommend disallowing search engines and other bots from scraping your social media accounts if it’s an option, and remove as much identifying personal information from your profiles as possible. Use a data removal service like Incogni or PrivacyBee to get your data out of the hands of data brokers.”
Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Champion at Pixel Privacy:
“It’s important for users to take control of their data privacy. I strongly recommend contacting data brokers to have your information removed from their servers. Data brokers are popular targets for hackers, putting all of the data (your data) on the brokers’ servers at risk. While it can be a time consuming process, it is worth it in the long run. If you are pressed for time, subscribe to a service like Incogni, who will contact the data brokers on your behalf, while keeping you informed of their progress.”
“AI is also a rising threat to data privacy. As the use of AI rises, so does the threat to customers’ data. Organizations must take steps to ensure that they put enough security in place that customer data is not inadvertently shared.”
“We continue to see misconfigured data buckets on cloud storage providers like AWS expose data to hackers. Several times, unprotected databases on AWS and other cloud providers have exposed customer and company data to the world, simply because the security protections are misconfigured. This has to stop.”
Carlos Aguilar Melchor, chief scientist, cybersecurity at SandboxAQ
“Privacy Day highlights the importance of safeguarding personal information and advancing secure systems in an increasingly interconnected world. We are seeing organizations across the globe push toward a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) strategy, which underscores a shift to “never trust, always verify” principles, enhancing data security and resilience against cyber threats. Simultaneously, the ongoing transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is crucial to future-proofing encryption against the potential risks posed by quantum computing, ensuring privacy and security in the digital age. We are proud to be contributing to these initiatives through cryptography modernization, and to reflect a proactive approach to evolving privacy challenges.”
Jimmy Astle, Senior Director of Detection Enablement at Red Canary:
The rise of generative AI has brought data privacy to the forefront of global conversations. These AI models, trained on vast amounts of internet-scraped data, have ignited concerns about consent and transparency. Questions are being asked about whether individuals and organizations should be informed if their data is being used in this way.
It’s clear our current privacy laws are struggling to keep pace with the evolution of technology. However, while generative AI adds complexity, it doesn’t eclipse existing data privacy concerns that we’re already grappling with. In fact, the most pressing challenges still stem from widespread data breaches and apps that exploit personal data for profit.
What GenAI has done though is introduce new dimensions to these existing challenges. For example, we’re seeing a rise in AI-driven SaaS tools that collect and process user data. Technology vendors are increasingly offering opt-out options for their AI features to safeguard user privacy, but this underscores a larger need for more clarity around how data is being used.
The path forward demands a balance of adaptability, transparency, and regulation. Organizations must take proactive steps to safeguard privacy, including clear communication around data practices and investment in privacy-preserving technologies. Regulators must also work closely with the technology industry to craft policies that protect individuals without hindering progress.
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This entry was posted on January 28, 2025 at 8:40 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.