Digital Privacy: Importance, Challenges, and Strategies for Protection

This article discusses the importance of digital privacy in the age of technology and innovation. It highlights the challenges faced in protecting digital privacy, such as information overload, digital piracy, and digital ethics. The article also provides strategies for protecting digital privacy, including raising awareness, avoiding unnecessary login, and having strong passwords. It also discusses the Australian Privacy Principles and the Facebook data breach.

Running head: Digital privacy
Digital privacy
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Locality program around the world are being highly popular as it provides a great value not only for
the consumers, but for the organizations as well who is providing the loyalty card. However the
problem is that while 80% of people who have locality card does not have a proper understanding to
the process of data collection and data distribution. Hence it should be made sure that while
consumers are submitting the information they have proper knowledge about the policy of the data
collection and privacy which needs to be clarified through questions if required also that they also
benefits for the process as it provides the organizations.
Digital privacy is an important concept in the age of technology and innovation where everything is
being replaced with digital innovation (Reijonen et al. 2015). Although it is enhancing day to
activities and increasing productivity. However one thing that is often ignored is the concept of
privacy. In order to strengthen the data privacy Australia has implemented the Australian Privacy
Principles or APP.
Privacy refers to the concept of hiding the information from others and not letting them have access
to the information what one think to be important. In the digital age the definition of privacy has
not changed too (Bocken and Short 2016). However the context has changed a lot. Instead of
physical theft, here hackers and criminals steal information online. The owner of the information is
often not aware of the theft which is the major concerns here. Hence even before the owner has any
idea about it, his or her privacy is compromised. Hence privacy in the digital context is way more
challenging, complex and diverse which makes it difficult to manage it properly.
The context of digital privacy has changed due to the way information is stored and accessed.
Digital materials are extensively considered to enhance the effectiveness of storing information
(Laukkanen 2015). Digitization in accessing information from anywhere and it also makes the
information more organized. However at the same time it has made the security and privacy of
information compromised.

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Due to digitization people has access to enormous information which often leads to information
overload which makes it difficult for majority of the people to organize information correctly
(Porterfield 2015). It often leads to plagiarism as well as information is readily available in the form
of digital materials. Hence digital piracy is another important issue to consider around digital
materials.
Another issues that is raised around digital materials is the digital ethics. It does not consider what
information is captured, how it is stored and in exactly what way it is shared and distributed which
keeps people less informed and often does not know how privacy is being compromised (Raisch
2016).
As digital privacy is becoming a major concern of most of the people it is important to develop a
proper strategy for the same for protecting the digital privacy and enhancing it as well.
The first and most important strategy is to raise awareness among people so that they are aware
what is digital privacy and what it is important. Without proper awareness, it is not possible to
implement any effective strategy that will mitigate the issues of digital privacy. Awareness should
be built about various context such as how to store information, how to share it properly, how to
comply with security guidelines recommended by experts (Porterfield 2015). When proper
knowledge is built in these topics, it will be easier for the people to manage their information better
and protect their privacy as well.
In the digital age, internet has a major role to play and it has made the social life more connected as
well. In the internet world, if one company has established its dominance is none other than Goggle.
There will be no one, who has accessed internet but still not familiarized with this company. Such is
the dominance of the company.
In order to protect themselves in this platform, users are suggested not to login with their account if
it is not required. While some service like uploading video in YouTube, a video sharing platform by
google, requires login to the google account, most of the services such as internet browsing through

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the google search engine, watching video in the YouTube platform does not require to be logged in.
hence this should be avoided in such cases which help to deny access to the information stored in
the account by other services as well rather than google itself. Some settings like “turn on location
access”, “allow access to Gmail account” should be avoided for enhancing security.
Another popular social media platform is Facebook that is accessed by millions of people on a daily
basis. However the compromise of data security is an important issue that needs to be taken into
consideration. In order to protect the data the first step is to have strong username and password for
the account followed by two step verification enabled for the account so that the account is not
easily accessible by others (Porterfield 2015). Another important suggestion is not to share too
much personal information like financial information, credit and debit card numbers, identity proof
and other personal information as well which reduces the chances of those information getting
hacked and accessed by others who are not authorized to access the information.
As part of the digital privacy and in order to secure icloud account, some steps are required. First
strong password needs to be set and it need to be renewed in regular basis. Additionally two phase
authentication as recommended by Apple needs to be turned on. Another essential yet most ignored
feature is not to sign out when not using the device. However this is highly recommended for
protecting digital privacy.
However when discussing about privacy, it needs to be identified the level of privacy that is
required. It is also important to note that not all people requires same level of privacy. It depends on
the level of digital activities. While some people are more active and spent a lot of time on the
digital platform, no everyone has equal level of activity in the digital platform. People who are
associated with the digital services and shares a lot of information online (Raisch 2016). People
who belong to this category needs to be more aware of the digital challenges and threats and they
requires better protection than the other category of people who has less online presence.

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For example a recent data breach in Facebook shows that while social life is becoming more
connected but it is making the digital privacy less secured. Facebook was not having transparent
process which let the consumer know what way the data about their social media profile was
collected and distributed to the third party, Cambridge Analytica. Hence users were not aware of the
process. It was only revealed only after the incident was exposed. Hence it was not only about
privacy, it is also about violation of digital ethics.
In 2017 Kmart confirmed that when its consumers entered the store, the credit card information of
the consumers were stolen. However the store was not aware of the fact that the system and
technology used for the implementation of the credit card information system had flaws. Hence it
shows that while technology has helped organizations to develop a digital presence, it is not as
secure as organizations think (Warren 2017). Hence it might be said that, while digital revolution is
important, what is even more important is to develop the strategy to identify issues and mitigate
them as well to design a secure online system for protecting the digital privacy (Dan 2015).
As number of digital products and services are being commercialized, it is important to have a
strong legislation for bringing transparency in the way products and services are being distributed to
the public (Chan 2014). A strong legislation will makes it easier not only for the government, but
for the common people as well to identify if companies and organizations are considering any
illegal means for making profit. Hence the process will be more coherent and will help people to
protect their personal information with more effectiveness. Hence proper legislation is required in
this context.
While sometime it is the responsibility of the organization to protect the information that they
collect about their consumers. However consumers are equally responsible to protect their
information. Then there is one issue that not everyone has the understanding of the information that
is being collected and how it is collected either. Hence not everyone is equally capable to protect
their information which compromises their privacy. That is why these process needs to be simple,

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more transparent and authentic (Porterfield 2015). Along with that awareness should be raised
among the people so that more number of people join the process of protecting the digital
information and strengthen the digital privacy.
While most of the rules of the Australian Privacy Principles are similar to the European Union’s
General Data Protection Rule or GDPR, it has some functional differences as well. The Australian
Privacy Principles or APP requires individual to be consent of their personal information. This
consent have to be either expressed or implied. Business that collects this data need to demonstrate
that individual who owns the data has provided consent to collect the data. Although GDPR also
requires consent but it does not requires consent to be expressed or implied.
The Australian Privacy Principles through notifiable data breaches scheme requires APP entities to
keep the commissioner aware of any potential data breach so that it is possible to mitigate. However
GDPR provides some timeframe for the organizations to inform the authorities to inform them
about any data breach.

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References:
Bocken, N.M.P. and Short, S.W., 2016. The theory of digital privacy: a comprehensive discussion.
McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Chan, C., 2014, January. The importance of proper assessment tool for interactive system
management.
Dan, A., the scope and status of digital privacy as evaluation and planning tool, 2015. Method and
apparatus for leading effective evaluation program.
Laukkanen, T., 2015. The definition and scope of digital privacy for interactive system. A modern
theory of project management, 42, pp.35-46.
Porterfield, T.E., 2015. Evaluation of interactive system: an empirical investigation of scope and
success. International Journal of information security management, 40(6), pp.435-455.
Raisch, W., 2016. Towards a sufficiency-driven interactive system assessment: evaluation, 18,
pp.41-61.
Reijonen, H., Hirvonen, S., Nagy, G., Laukkanen, T. and Gabrielsson, M., 2015. The bias of
effective evalaution method in interactive system evaluation. A modern approach, 51, pp.35-46.
Warren. N, 2017, January. The importance of evaluation quality for successful review of interactive
system and implementation: an intuitive guide.

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