Celebrating Data Privacy Day: Ensuring ethical agentic AI in our daily interactions
Both AI agents and agentic AI are becoming increasingly powerful and prevalent. With AI agents, we can automate simple tasks and save time in our everyday lives. With agentic AI, businesses can automate complex enterprise processes. Widespread AI use is an inevitability, and the question going forward is not if we’ll use the technology but how well.
In a world where AI takes on more responsibility, we need to know how to measure its effectiveness. Metrics like the number of human hours saved or the costs reduced are, of course, important. But we also need to consider things like how ethically and securely our AI solutions operate. This is true when adopting third-party solutions and when training AI in house.
Data breaches are top privacy concern for consumers
Fears of a data breach dominate consumer concerns, with 64 percent naming breaches as their top privacy worry.
A new report, based on responses from almost 2,500 people around the world, released by Acronis to mark this year's Data Privacy Day, shows that in spite of heightened awareness 25 percent of respondents have experienced data theft or loss and 12 percent remain unsure if they've been breached, underlining the hidden nature of many cyberattacks.
Data Privacy Day: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Privacy Day is of extra importance this year because of a dramatic increase in attacks designed to get around measures that make account log-ins more secure, and therefore protect our privacy.
For example, in mid-September, Uber reported a network breach that led to shutting down some of its internal communications and locking its codebase to prevent any new code changes. The attacker reportedly targeted a contractor by repeatedly sending multi-factor authentication login messages until the contractor accepted and gave the attacker access, according to Uber. Several days later, video game maker Rockstar Games announced it also had suffered a network intrusion from an unauthorised third party. The company says the attacker was able to gain confidential information, including early development footage for its upcoming and much anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto VI.
Happy Data Privacy/Data Protection day
These days no important topic is worthy of the name if it doesn't have a day devoted to it. Today (January 28) it's the turn of data privacy -- or data protection depending on who you talk to -- to take its turn in the spotlight.
As organizations gather ever more data, concerns around how it is stored and used have grown which has led to legislators taking an interest too.
Data Privacy Day aims to raise awareness of how we collect and use data
Today is Data Privacy Day -- or Data Protection Day, depending on who you talk to -- a day dedicated to an international effort to raise awareness about how data is collected, used and stored.
So, what do the luminaries of the IT world have to say about the day and about data privacy/protection in general? We've rounded up some of their thoughts.
Consumers worry about privacy but don't want to change their habits
A survey released to coincide with Data Privacy Day reveals that although 80 percent of consumers are concerned about their data privacy, few are willing to change their habits.
The study from Entrust, based on responses from 500 adults in the US and 500 in the UK, shows 64 percent of consumers are willing to some degree to share personal information with an app in exchange for more relevant, personalized and/or convenient services.
Industry expert views for Data Privacy Day
Depending on who you talk to today is either Data Privacy Day or Data Protection Day. But whatever you want to call it the idea is to focus attention on the importance of best practices for looking after sensitive information.
In the current environment with distributed workforces and more transactions taking place online, this is more important than ever. We've rounded up opinions from some leading industry figures on the current state of data privacy and what can still be improved.
Facebook promises to give users more control over their privacy... again
Today is Data Privacy Day, and Facebook is using the occasion to try to convince its users that it cares about their privacy.
The social network says that it recognizes there is a lot of work to do to improve privacy protections, but that's not going to stop the company from trying to make it seem as though it doesn't represent a massive invasion of privacy. As part of its latest PR campaign, Facebook will encourage users to review their privacy settings as well as launching the Off-Facebook Activity tool globally.
The perils of choosing convenience over privacy: When is it not worth it?
From the lightbulb and telephone to smartphones, the advanced technology of the day has always been lauded as a way to make peoples’ lives easier. But while today’s technology makes it possible to pay that electricity bill from your phone, it has also opened up privacy concerns that were unimaginable even ten years ago. In that decade, it is reported that more than 4 billion records have been stolen and 15 of the largest data breaches in history have occurred. Has technology marketed as a consumer convenience contributed to these breaches?
While George Orwell presented a dire picture of "big brother," today’s society certainly seems willing to embrace technologies that are always watching, listening and capitalizing on personal data shared in our daily lives. But what’s the true cost of choosing convenience over privacy? Let’s look at how technology has driven privacy complacency for the sake of convenience and how it has changed the way people think about and safeguard their information.
Ten top tips to keep your information secure on Data Privacy Day
One of the biggest threats as you browse the internet isn’t hackers trying to get into your computer (a common misconception) or the potential of accidentally installing malicious software. Your security suite should take care of both these issues.
No, the single biggest issue is your personal data and the information you leave all over the internet when you share your content, chat with other people and the login information we use to access our online data. What can we do to safeguard our personal data and keep it away from people seeking to exploit us? Here are our top tips.
Try not to laugh -- for Data Privacy Day, Facebook wants you to take a Privacy Checkup
Facebook is not a platform that's synonymous with privacy -- far from it. In addition to the things users purposefully share with the social network and the people they are connected to on it, there have been a seemingly endless string of scandals about unauthorized third parties being granted access to private data, data being shared between apps, and so on ad nauseum.
With today being Data Privacy Day, Facebook is trying -- apparently without a faintest hint of irony -- to jump on the bandwagon. Starting today, the company is launching a new Privacy and Data Use Business Hub, as well as inviting users to take a Privacy Checkup.
Corporations seen as a bigger threat to data privacy than cyber criminals
Ahead of this Sunday's (January 28) Data Privacy Day, enterprise cyber security company Tripwire has conducted a poll of Twitter users asking who they were most concerned about collecting their private information.
Of the more than 300 people who took part, 40 percent say they would be most worried about corporations stealing their information. While nearly a third (27 percent) say they are most concerned about the government gathering their critical data.
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