Privacy is a fundamental right that is part of liberal democracies and freedom. It should be protected at all costs. Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there having malicious purposes and the databases containing your private information is a perfect and efficient way to get to know your weak points. To protect your sensitive information learn and acquire knowledge on what personal data actually is, why protect it and how to enforce strict privacy rights.
What is personal data
What is personal data? Which kind of information should you protect specially from companies or industries which operate it?
Personal data has no strict definition, it varies from one country to another and the law affiliated to it is not the same on all continents.
Personal data is any information that relates to an identified living individual. According to this definition personal data might include a name and surname, a home address, medical records, an identification card number etc.
Why protect my data if I have nothing to hide?
Why does privacy matter? This question has arisen in the context of a global debate. Privacy violations as often slight annoyances. Is there a real harm in mass surveillance? Only people that are engaged in bad acts might have a reason to hide and to care about privacy.
Privacy is a social norm. We put in passwords on our devices and locks on bathroom doors to help safeguard our privacy and even citizens saying they’re not bothered by it use them to prevent people from entering their private realm. The only people who will seek out privacy, are by definition bad people. Nevertheless we as human beings not just terrorists and criminals, all of us — have things to hide. We all need private moments that we can keep out of persistent, insistent and inquisitive looks.
Personal data affects nearly everything, including what messages and content we see on the Internet. Without the knowledge of what data is being used for, we are virtually helpless in today’s world. The internet should be a tool of liberation and democratization but can be used in an unprecedented way allowing mass indiscriminate surveillance. A lack of privacy and thriving mass surveillance remodels a society that breeds conformity and obedience and submission. Don’t agree to make yourself a harmless, uninteresting and non threatening person not to fear people knowing what you’re doing.
Information is power
Information, as power, has some unique qualities and has become predominant in our society. Unlike goods it costs nothing to move around, it can be shared over and over again, without exhaustion as long as a partie is interested in disclosing it. Information is the key to how the digital society adds value and redistributes power. In a connected world, information gains power through permanent storage and wide distribution. Yet, once recorded digital information can exist forever. Data has a precious value when its owner can assimilate, affiliate, evaluate and interpret it. The ability to use data and convert it to information is a decisive, critical juncture. It creates a large and considerable gap between those who can use information as a resource and those who cannot.
Furthermore, there is an exponential increase in new devices and applications that implement and make possible to spy out a private and single person. This high networked society is constantly changing in drastic manners, so is information fluency. Information is collected by giant data processing softwares and could be put out at one’s disadvantage. Prejudice can be caused in invading someone’s private life and divulging some knowledge in a mischievous way. Following up, blackmail and extortion are then negative consequences. By large scale, monitoring and analysis of the population makes it already possible to draw out conclusions on people's behaviors and use it for malicious purposes. By taking the decision to ensure your confidential information you’re not the only benefiting from it but in one way, you commit and perform a service for whole society.
Privacy rights
The right to privacy is cited in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the legally binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
Privacy rights prevent the governments to spy out on its citizens. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens, but it often crosses the line when it comes to surveillance. Anti-democratic systems or dictatures might be interested in collecting its population’s private information. They pretend to fight cyber criminality by using an extremely sharp surveillance system but are in fact aiming a total despotism towards its inhabitants. The right to privacy let you engage freely in politics and protects freedom of speech as though.
Privacy rights keep groups from using personal data for their own goals. Businesses burst in on the scene as well. By knowing what customers are interested in, they search to adjust their advertisement campaigns to different target groups reaching out to you in a personalised way so they can increase customers’ consumption.
And last but not least, privacy rights ensure and protect your finances. Hackers and criminals are as well very big players in that field. Illicit and fraudulent activities are made possible through data acquisition causing thereupon troublesome scenarios. Without these restrictions, cybercriminals are more likely to steal and misuse data without consequence.
How to protect your personal data
After reading this article, you can’t say that you didn’t see it coming. Confidential communication is fundamental for liberal democracies. When in the wrong hands, personal information can be wielded as a powerful tool. One of the best ways to protect your data is to encrypt it. End-to-end encryption gives you back control and protects your data from snoopers and prying eyes. Encryption is the best working way so far to secure your data of any form of unwanted access. By taking plain text and using mathematical calculations to turn data into code it is converted into cipher text, only those who have the special key can decrypt your files. Our user friendly system enables ease of operations, guarantees the highest possible control and ensures that nobody but you can access your personal information so that no disadvantageous data breach arises.
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"You want to learn more? We release interesting information every week. Be curious and have a look at our blog posts https://axcrypt.net/blog/ don’t forget to contact us at support@axcrypt.net or business@axcrypt.net if you have any questions! ",