The 17th Data Protection Day will be celebrated globally on January 28. The celebrations are aimed at raising awareness about the right to data protection and various ways in which people can keep their data safe. This important celebration was initiated by the Council of Europe.
History & Significance
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to launch Data Protection Day in 2006. January 28 was chosen for the annual celebrations.
Data Protection Day marks the anniversary of the opening of the global data protection Convention, Convention 108. For over 40 years, Convention 108 has influenced and shaped privacy and data protection. Data Protection Day is now celebrated globally and it is also known as ‘Privacy Day’ in some parts of the world.
This day raises one of the most important issues of the digitally advancing world. The main goal of the day is to educate people on data protection challenges and inform them about their rights to privacy and how to exercise them.
10 Ways to Protect Your Personal Information and Data
1. Always use storage with data protection with built-in disk clustering and redundancy.
2. Always create copies of data and store them separately, to be able to restore data in case of loss or modification.
3. Always review data privacy settings on digital, and social media accounts and apps you use.
4. Regularly change passwords to keep hackers away and use passwords that are 10 characters long with complex combinations.
5. Make sure to only use devices with the latest firewalls and anti-virus software.
6. Turn off Bluetooth devices when not in use as Bluetooth devices can also leave personal data vulnerable which could be accessed by hackers in several ways.
7. Always keep your operating system updated to ensure that they have the latest performance and security updates.
8. Avoid using unsecured public networks as they may be vulnerable to breach and in some cases, they may be imposter networks waiting to steal your data.
9. Always secure personal info offline on a device that doesn't connect to the internet to make sure it is safe and away from the reach of hackers.
10 . Make sure to set up Two-Factor Authentication on all your financial and email accounts.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
