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.
Pandemic boosts the importance of data privacy
A rapid shift to remote work and the need to make use of individuals' health information has led to greater emphasis on the importance of privacy protections during the pandemic.
The fourth annual Data Privacy Benchmark Study from Cisco, released today, analyzed the responses of 4,400 security and privacy professionals across 25 countries and explores attitudes towards privacy legislation and the emergence of privacy metrics being reported at senior level.
Microsoft gives users greater control over speech recognition privacy
Microsoft has announced that it is rolling out an important update relating to voice data collected during speech recognition. The changes give users more control over how their data is used, and comes in response to privacy concerns about the use of private data.
The update means that users will now be able to give or deny consent for Microsoft to manually transcribe the contents of voice clips for the purposes of improving the accuracy of speech recognition.
Facebook explains why millions of users are losing access to key features
If you've logged into Facebook, launched Instagram, or fired up Facebook Messenger recently, you may well have seen a message reading, "some features not available". So, what's going on?
Various restrictions have come into force because of new privacy laws that Facebook must comply with. It means that some "advanced options", such as creating polls, are no longer available to millions of users. Facebook has revealed just what is happening.
Data localization suite helps businesses comply with changing regulations
Nations around the world are introducing new standards and regulations to address data access, protection, and privacy. This means businesses need to evaluate and set data controls at the appropriate level for each place they operate in.
To help with this problem Cloudflare is launching a Data Localization Suite to give businesses the tools to address their data locality, privacy, and compliance needs.
Microsoft makes changes to Productivity Score over privacy concerns
Microsoft has announced that it is committed to privacy as the company introduces changes to its Productivity Score tool that raised concerns recently.
The tool is part of Microsoft 365 and was designed to help employers analyze the performance of teams working on projects. But privacy advocates said that the ability to monitor employees on an individual basis amounted to it being a "full-fledged workplace surveillance tool". With the newly announced changes, Microsoft is hoping to allay such fears.
Microsoft 365's 'Productivity Score' raises serious privacy concerns
Microsoft has attracted the attention of privacy campaigners over the Productivity Score feature of Microsoft 365. The tool uses telemetry to enable employers to track the activities and performance of workers.
The analytics tool has been criticized for being a serious invasion of privacy, as it gives employers the ability to closely monitor individuals. One data privacy researcher describes it as "turn[ing] Microsoft 365 into a full-fledged workplace surveillance tool".
How the banking sector is adapting to security and regulatory requirements [Q&A]
Banks and other financial services institutions have been moving more and more towards digital in order to streamline processes and improve customer service.
The pandemic has accelerated this process but has also brought a rise in cyberattacks. Regulators have also begun to take more notice of security practices surrounding accounts. We spoke to Michael Magrath, director, global regulations and standards, at specialist in anti-fraud and digital identity solutions for financial institutions OneSpan, to discover more.
Privacy and security still major concerns for consumers
Although 59 percent of consumers have accessed more online services than usual this year, they still have worries about the security and privacy of their data.
A new report from identity verification and authentication provider Onfido shows the top concerns are that data will be passed on to third parties (53 percent), the security of the information (50 percent), and asking for too much information (37 percent).
Businesses positive about data governance but still struggle with privacy concerns
According to new research 72 percent of enterprises believe data governance is an enabler of business value rather than a cost center.
However, the study from enterprise search specialist Sinequa also shows that data privacy concerns are ranked as a top barrier to being more data-driven as an organization.
Google adds new privacy setting to Gmail for anyone happy to skip 'smart' features
The smart features of Gmail -- such as Smart Compose and Smart Reply to help speed up email composition -- are certainly handy, but they come at a price. Privacy.
As is often the case with Google products, sharing personal information with the company is par for the course. While it could be argued that some features simply could not function properly, or be personalized correctly, without such data-sharing, not everyone is happy with giving up their privacy in this way. Now Google has introduced an option that gives users greater control.
Average financial services employees have access to over 10 million files
A new Data Risk Report from Varonis reveals that an average financial services employee has access to nearly 11 million files and for larger companies the number is 20 million.
This level of exposure means that if just one employee clicks on a phishing email there is potentially a huge amount of sensitive information at the hacker's fingertips.
Europeans don't trust US tech giants with their data
A new study reveals that 82 percent of Europeans don't trust US tech giants with their personal files, despite increasing reliance on cloud services due to COVID-19.
The survey of 4,500 people across the UK, France and Germany, conducted by pCloud, one of Europe's fastest-growing file-sharing and cloud storage providers, finds the biggest concerns are personal data being used for commercial gain (51 percent) and the possibility of hacks (43 percent).
One in three Brits uses someone else's streaming login
According to a new study from F-Secure, 36 percent of Brits are willing to use someone else’s details to access streaming services if given the chance.
Also 42 percent of Brits share their login details to their favourite streaming services with between one and three other people and 70 percent feel no guilt when using someone else’s login for Netflix or Amazon.
Privacy and security concerns increase with remote work
Two new global studies from network specialist Cisco reveal an increase in consumer concern about data sharing during the pandemic and the security challenges organizations face supporting employees and customers in our remote-first world.
The reports also highlight the opportunities presented by the accelerated transition to a cloud-first, remote world that demands us to be secure, connected and productive from anywhere.
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