Data Privacy Day

27 January 2010, filed under Ecommerce

Data Privacy Day is on the 28th January 2010. Primarily celebrated in the United States and Canada, its original purpose was to raise awareness and provoke discussion among children and teenagers about data protection and data privacy. Last year in the U.S. the House and Senate passed Resolutions to implement 28th January as National Data Privacy Day. Since then, 27 member states of the European Union have joined this initiative to encourage awareness of the importance of understanding online privacy.

Data Privacy Day has seen an increase in the number of some of the foremost companies supporting the scheme, including Google, Microsoft, Intel, Sky, Nickelodeon and Walt Disney UK. Data Privacy Day is being supported by the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK and the Data Protection Commissioner’s Office in the Republic of Ireland.

On 28th January 2010, in conjunction with Data Privacy Day, London based law firm Speechly Bircham will launch an initiative called ‘The i in Online’ to educate children and teenagers on the implications and legal issues associated with good management and mismanagement of personal information online with in-school workshops. This initiative focuses primarily on the use of social networking sites. Facebook’s recent privacy changes to users’ profiles resulted in users’ personal information being accessible by the global online community unless the user elected to opt-out and manually alter their privacy settings to private.

Personal information and personal data can be easily abused. Identity theft and identity fraud are frequently referred to in the media and as a society exploiting technology at home and in the workplace, we need to ensure that protecting our personal information is a priority.

Make sure your read a website’s privacy policy and terms and conditions before disclosing personal information to a third party so that you know how your personal data will be processed and stored.