This year, the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) is running Data Privacy Week Jan. 27-31, 2025. Data Privacy Week is an international effort to empower individuals and businesses to respect privacy, safeguard data and enable trust. Join a free event to learn more. 

91% of organizations say they need to be doing more to protect their customers’ data (Cisco)

Read that again and let it sink in. 91 percent. That is not comforting.

3 Simple Steps to Take Control of Your Data

Your online activity generates vast amounts of data.

Data collected ranges from your interests, purchases, and online behavior. Websites, apps, devices, services, and companies worldwide collect this data. It can even include physical information like health data, such as steps counted by a phone app.

You cannot control how each little piece of data about you and your family is collected. However, you still have a right to data privacy. You can help manage your data with a few repeatable behaviors. 

Here are some simple, easy tips that will help you manage your data privacy:

1. Know The Tradeoff Between Privacy And Convenience

When you download an app, create an online account, or join social media, you’re often asked for personal data like location, contacts, or photos before you can use it. This information is valuable to these businesses. You should consider if the service you receive is worth the data you give up, even if the service is free.

Before sharing your personal data with businesses or services, consider the following:

• Is the required data worth the value of the service, app, or game?
• Can you maintain some control over your data privacy while still using the service?
• Is the requested data actually necessary for the app or service?
• If you haven’t used an app, service, or account for a few months, is it worth keeping, knowing it may be collecting and sharing your data?

2. Adjust Privacy Settings To Your Comfort Level

Review the privacy and security settings for each app, account, and device. These settings are typically found in a Settings section and can be quickly adjusted. Determine your preferred level of personal information sharing; we recommend sharing less data.

You don’t need to adjust every account at once; start with a few and gradually adjust all settings over time. For detailed, free resources, including the NCA’s Manage Your Privacy Settings page, visit their website for direct links to check settings for social media, retail stores, apps, and more.

3. Protect Your Data

Data privacy and data security are closely related. In addition to managing your data privacy settings, simple cybersecurity practices can further enhance your data safety. We recommend following the Core 4:

• Create long (at least 16 characters), unique passwords for each account and device. Use a password manager to store each password—maintaining dozens of passwords securely is now easier than ever.
• Turn on multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever it is permitted—this keeps your data safe even if your password is compromised.
• Turn on automatic device, software, and browser updates, or make sure you install updates as soon as they are available.
• Learn how to identify phishing messages, which can be sent as emails, texts, or direct messages, and report them to the authorities.

Follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook for more helpful tips during Data Privacy Week. It’s a great time to check all your personal devices, see what information you’re sharing (purposely or not!) and make a clean sweep to reset your preferences across the board.

It can be the first thing you check off your resolution list for 2025!