Data privacy has always been important as more of our data is digitized, and we share more information online. Data privacy simply means how a piece of information or data should be handled based on its relative importance. A single company will have the personal information of millions of customers. But, the data will be kept private so that customers’ identities stay as safe and protected as possible, and the company’s reputation remains untarnished. As we all know data privacy is definitely not just a business concern. It is increasingly difficult to do much of anything in modern life without having your identity associated with it. The new European Union’s data and privacy rules will safeguard the individual rights on personal data collection by companies for advertising and other purposes. Companies will collect data from your phones applications and the websites you visit. But, they will have to inform the customers why they are collecting the information and the usage of the same piece of information for a different purpose later. Therefore companies will have to reassure their practices and privacy choices they offer for enabling top notch services to its customers.

You, as an individual, have a lot at stake when it comes to data privacy. The more you know about it, the better able you’ll be to help protect yourself from a large number of risks. While there have been multiple expressions of concern from privacy advocates and government, there has been little action to improve privacy protections in the online, always connected world.  Consumer privacy must shift to consumer-centric, where consumers have real control over their information.