News and Events

Data Privacy

Definition

Data privacy, also known as information privacy, refers to the developing relationship and interaction between technology and the privacy of personally identifiable information (PII) that is collected, stored, and shared by organizations. Personally identifiable information includes any piece of data that can be used alone, or in conjunction with additional information, to uniquely identify an individual. Examples of such information include first and last names, social security numbers, national identification numbers, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, driver's license numbers, credit card numbers, as well as financial and medical records, etc.

Given that organizations have advanced technologies to efficiently collect, store, and share personally identifiable information, data privacy has become an increasingly significant issue worldwide. Business trends including an increase in electronic data capture, data mining, outsourcing, and offshoring, combined with an increase in data theft and strict privacy legislation, have created worldwide privacy frenzy. Today, organizations have the distinct responsibility to ensure data privacy, which often requires innovative technologies to ensure that personally identifiable information does not end up in the hands of data thieves.

Data Privacy Organizations

Several data privacy organizations have been established to address the concerns with the increase in data theft incidents and the ongoing developments in privacy legislation. Many of them operate as not-for-profit organizations, providing meaningful information about worldwide data privacy issues, legislation, news, and events. The following associations provide such information to consumers concerned with data privacy and to organizations interested in information about privacy legislation and compliance issues.

International Association of Privacy Professionals
World's largest association for the privacy field
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Non-profit consumer information and advocacy organization
Computer Security Institute
Information and computer security membership organization
Realtime IT Compliance
Community for information on IT Compliance and information security
The IT Compliance Institute
Global source for IT compliance information
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Public interest research center Global source for IT compliance information

Camouflage and Data Privacy

Camouflage is specifically designed to facilitate data privacy. The software enables the creation of realistic data for use in non-production environments, without the risk of exposing sensitive information to external and internal security threats. Camouflage addresses the storage and usage facets of data privacy which have been disregarded by other traditional security measures such as firewalls, passwords, and encryption.

Trends that create concern for data privacy such as increases in data mining, information sharing, outsourcing, and offshoring are addressed with Camouflage, ensuring the protection of sensitive data in all of these situations. Camouflage enables safe information sharing and mining, whereby sensitive data is masked first, and thus shared without security risks. Likewise, Camouflage facilitates safe outsourcing opportunities, so that information is fully protected before leaving the organization's secure production environment for outsourcing. Similarly, Camouflage enables information protection for organizations that undertake offshoring opportunities.