On January 28, we celebrate the International Day for the Protection of Personal Data, or Data Privacy Day. This date leads us to reflect on the importance of laws that safeguard the correct processing of private information in the most diverse countries.

Data Privacy Day began with an educational action by the Council of Europe, which began celebrating the date in 2007, and two years later, in 2009, the United States followed.

The purpose of Data Privacy Day is to make people aware of best practices for protecting their personal data in the online environment, especially on social media.

Nowadays, the day is celebrated in 47 member states of the European Union, the United States, and countries such as Canada, Israel, and Brazil.

We prepared this article to address topics related to Data Privacy Day. To facilitate your understanding, we divided our text into the following topics:

• Data Protection Day: Background
• How Data Protection Laws Work
• About GDPR
• LGPD: Brazilian Data Protection Law
• How to Protect Personal Data
• About senhasegura
• Conclusion

Enjoy the read!

Data Protection Day: Background

In April 2006, the Council of Europe chose January 28 to celebrate Data Protection Day. The date was stipulated in reference to Convention 108, established on January 28, 1981, which addresses the automated processing of personal data.

This document was signed by all member states of the Council in the period, to ensure the fundamental right to privacy, including good data processing practices.

Currently, it is celebrated to make people aware of its importance, taking into account that, every day, organizations collect and process more information, which needs to be monitored so that the rights of data subjects are not put at risk.

How Data Protection Laws Work

Data protection laws establish personal information protection policies, determining how corporations should treat the data of their customers, employees, and business partners.
In practice, it is necessary for individuals, companies, and governmental organizations to apply certain rules related to how they handle this information, such as collection, processing, and storage, to ensure compliance with current legislation.
Moreover, companies wishing to conduct business with another country must respect the data protection laws present in both nations.

About GDPR

European standards regulating the use of personal information in electronic environments are contained in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires the responsible use of personal information.

Its mass spread is still recent. For this reason, not all countries in Europe have adhered to the GDPR.
On the other hand, countries that conduct commercial transactions with European nations should pay attention to the requirements of the Regulation, which addresses criteria such as consent of owners, notification of data breach to authorities, and users’ rights, including:

• Being notified about the collection and use of their personal information;
• Requesting a copy and details on how the collection is performed, what data is being collected, and who has access to it;
• Requiring rectification of incomplete or incorrect data;
• Demanding that their data be deleted within 30 days;
• Restricting their personal information;
• Ensuring the transfer of personal data securely;
• Opposing the way data is used (except for information used by legal authorities).

LGPD: Brazilian Data Protection Law

The General Data Protection Law (LGPD) is Brazilian legislation that has the function of protecting the personal information of citizens living in Brazil. It details what personal data is and what information should be prioritized when protecting it.
According to the LGPD, even companies based outside the country must respect the rules established by the legislation.

How to Protect Personal Data

It is possible to have control over your data through good practices that reinforce its security.
Here are some of them:

• Keep your devices’ software up-to-date to prevent threats that could damage your devices and compromise your personal data;
• Verify that web pages are reliable before inserting your data, making sure that addresses start with http:// or https:// and that the lock icon or security certificate is present;
• Avoid exposing personal information on social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, and set up your privacy in posts;
• Do a general scan to know what data is being shared and, if necessary, disable options;
• Do not enter sensitive data on public Wi-Fi networks;
• Use strong passwords. For this, you can combine uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters. It is also important to avoid obvious things like names, phone numbers, and dates of birth.

About senhasegura

We, from senhasegura, are part of MT4 Tecnologia, a group of companies focusing on information security, founded in 2001 and operating in more than 50 countries.

Our commitment is to provide digital sovereignty and security to our clients, grant control over privileged actions and information, and prevent data breaches and leaks.

For this, we follow the lifecycle of privileged access management through machine automation, before, during, and after accesses. In short, our initiatives aim to:

• Avoid interruption of companies’ activities, which may impair their performance and profitability;
• Provide advanced PAM solutions;
• Automatically audit privileged changes in order to identify privilege abuses;
• Automatically audit the use of privileges;
• Reduce cyber threats; and
• Bring organizations into compliance with audit criteria and standards such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and Sarbanes-Oxley.

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown the importance of Data Protection Day and laws related to the preservation of personal information, in addition to some measures that can be adopted to protect sensitive data.
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