January 28th: Data Privacy Day

Data Privacy Day commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the first international treaty focused on data protection. Here’s how you can get involved.  

January 28th, Data Privacy Day 2020, is here. First introduced in January of 2008, Data Privacy Day commemorates the anniversary of the signing of Convention 108, one of the first international treaties focused on data protection. Here’s what you can do to get involved.

Ways to participate at home

Visit with your family about online privacy and safety. Discuss what information is private information and consider together the risks associated with sharing confidential information online. Take a look at the online accounts of any children in the home to identify breaches, risky behavior, and connections with strangers. Remedy any problems identified and use the opportunity to share information and teach.

Now is also a good time to go through old papers, files, and devices, and schedule safe destruction to protect your information before it lands in the wrong hands. Remember, never throw away bills, bank statements, check blanks, or devices without destroying them first.

How you can participate at work

There are a number of ways you can use this opportunity to promote data security at work:

• designate this as archive week, encouraging all staff to identify electronics that are no longer in use so they can be destroyed appropriately
• use games and activities to refresh staff knowledge of the risks of security breaches and internet best practices
• take a moment to ensure all corporate computers have the safest web browser, operating system, and security software installed and working as expected
• review your policies and procedures to ensure they’re still compliant with best practice; we learn and evolve every day so a periodic review is critical to achieving the best results
• share current news surrounding data breaches and lead a discussion exploring what went wrong and how similar crises can be avoided in your organization and industry

Involving your community

Data Privacy Day provides a great opportunity for community outreach and involvement. Include clients, stakeholders, and community members in your commitment to privacy. Host an open house, where you share materials encouraging safe internet practices at home and sharing what your organization is doing to protect client information. Send out client emails celebrating the occasion and summarizing all of the steps that go into maintaining their protected information (and the results of your hard work). You might even consider launching a survey to learn more about stakeholder satisfaction with your commitment to privacy and data protection program.