Today, people tend to spend most of their time online. Whether they want to shop, see a movie, or work, the internet has become the easiest method to use every day and night.
The time they used it only for social interaction or entertainment has passed, and now the online platforms are frequently used for banking, logistics or government services.
Privacy is about controlling what, when and how personal information, such as name, location or contact, reaches others. It’s the same for the online world too, where many users want to know what types of personal information are collected.
The most common example of data collection is social media interaction because social platforms store specific data about users, using them after to provide services.
Everything happens online, from food ordering to work meetings and conferences on video platforms. All this actual online activity has consequences on people’s data privacy, and people are more exposed now than ever. Still, many improvements have been made during the past years to increase privacy. Governments constantly work to ease the process of users’ identification to avoid cyberattacks and battle cybercrime.
Here are some security transformations that improved internet users’ online experiences –
- GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation) gives EU internet users more control over how organizations control and use their data;
- In 2021, Apple gave its users more control and transparency above their data, using privacy nutrition labels to offer users details about how an app operates their data.
- Google plans to block third-party cookies that can see which sites you usually visit and create a consumer profile based on them.
With these kinds of transformations on board, the future of data protection sounds good, and privacy trends will continue their ascension for sure.
Data Security Trends
Here are some potential security trends that will shape the data protection landscape this year.
People will Protect Better their Data
How often did you hesitate to offer someone personal information in real life because you don’t trust certain people? Well, the same reasoning is valid for virtual life communication. You surely saw ads or website suggestions many times while checking social platforms. You see them because marketers collect various types of personal information to create a personalized offer. But maybe you don’t want it to happen anymore.
That’s why trying to identify methods of protecting data is a common action among internet users. Transparency is an essential element of data protection, and more and more individuals are searching the market for services and brands that respect it.
The constant searching of how to control what personal information runs through the internet is an advantage for businesses too because they can increase the range of clients by adding extra measures for protecting their data.
For example, companies can allow consumers to access or delete their data. Companies can gain buyers’ trust and loyalty by paying attention to what bothers the clients and listening to their requests about virtual security. This way, the sales increase, and the brands grow naturally.
Use Encryption Technology
Encryption technology is more and more popular among numerous industries, and it is expected that many of them will adopt this technique to protect their clients’ or employees’ data in 2022.
Encryption scrambles data, and the original information becomes unreadable. It is one of the best methods to protect sensitive information that can be easily hacked because only authorized users can decrypt the using of a password or binary key.
This type of technology constantly develops new variants of services. For example, one of the latest encryption technologies is encryption-as-a-service (EaaS), which promises to make encryption fit more organizations and companies. You should check this option because it is a pay-as-you-go service that any customer can purchase from a cloud provider.
Mask Data Through Anonymization
Keeping an anonymous presence on the internet seemed a challenging task to fulfill in the past, but now things have changed. You may ask what anonymization means?
It’s a method that helps users remove or modify personal identifiers that may lead to identifying individuals. In other words, the data is anonymized, and it cannot be associated with anyone.
Anonymization also affects marketers because they use their website, online ads, and social media platforms to reach their audience, which requires customer data collection. This way, online retailers create personalized experiences for everyone who accesses similar websites or uses social media. Now, users can use anonymization to stop the collecting data technique.
More Governments will Pursue Cyber Security Legislation to Prevent Cyber Crime
Maintaining privacy is one of the most complicated missions for internet users because personal information is exposed anytime they use smartphones and social platforms.
The data gets in the hands of numerous companies that share it with advertisers, marketers, and governments. Yes, it is true; governments can request access to your data, and the most common way of reaching is through social media platforms. It may seem confusing to know that the state can search for personal information about you whenever they want.
The states that request the most personal data are the United States, Germany, Denmark and South Korea. Why they do this and what is the benefit of it are natural questions that can cross your mind.
The Covid-19 pandemic substantially impacted cybersecurity, and many cyberattacks occurred. The work-from-home trend and increasing data traffic forced governments to pay more attention to the security of digital services.
Governments constantly search for methods to prevent cybercrime, and more states may develop legislation to report and combat cybercrime incidents.
Prepare for Digital Footprints Supremacy
In this era, everything happens online, and posting photos, texts, videos or personal information, such as name, phone number and age, is a frequent activity for many people worldwide. These voluntary acts threaten the security of personal data and intensify cyberattacks.
The internet forms the digital footprint of your actions by stocking large amounts of personal information. It will store your online activities, and unlike sand footprints, these will stick around for a long time.
Storing personal data results in increased cybercrimes and data breaches, so both consumers and organizations need to assure that a lean digital footprint is maintained.
