Understanding the Difference between Data Security and Data Privacy.

Data Security 

Data security encompasses all the practices and procedures implemented with the goal of protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access, both internal and external to an organization. This can stem from data breaches and cyber attacks, to simple inadvertent misuse of sensitive data. In reality, as far as businesses are concerned, data security is essentially the actual solutions an organization deploys to ensure all threats are accounted for, as even the smallest breach can be extremely costly.

Data Privacy

Data privacy is concerned with discerning who should have access to sensitive data and which parties the information needs to be protected from. Put simply, it is about making sure that any information is stored and used in a manner that is compliant with privacy laws and with the consent of whoever owns that data. 

Relationship between Data Security and Data Privacy

There is a lot of overlap between these two concepts. One way to look at it is that data privacy is about making sure that organizations use sensitive information responsibly and in accordance with the wishes of its clients and customers. Conversely, data security is about the tools used to safeguard sensitive data from falling into places it shouldn’t – and is the mechanism by which a company ensures data privacy is maintained.

Take for example a customer purchasing a product from a website. They provide their credit card information, billing address and other information. Data privacy is concerned with ensuring that only individuals within the organization that have permission to deal with the sensitive data have access to it whilst making sure they use it in a manner that strictly follows the appropriate regulations. Data security comes into play when the company implements measures such as flagging sensitive information as a critical data element (CDE), restricting certain employees from accessing CDEs, and adding policies and context to CDEs so that users know how to properly use the CDE.

This example is one of virtually limitless potential scenarios. The volume of data that organizations ingest and create is increasing, with information becoming both more valuable and vulnerable simultaneously. The data privacy demands on businesses are becoming overwhelming. To meet this challenge, the implementation of an enterprise-level data security framework. One key feature of the viable data security options on the market is AI. With the innumerable ways for data privacy to be breached, your data security platform needs to be able to autonomously scan your organization’s data at scale. One reason for this, of the many, is that it is the best guarantee that all CDEs are identified and your data security team is notified of any vulnerable data assets for remedial action.

Conclusion

The interplay between data security and data privacy is the backbone of responsible data management. Organizations need to understand that data privacy cannot be achieved without sound data security practices. This article merely scratches the surface on the complexities that exist in the realm of data security and data privacy, especially when dealing with regulations. The best-in-class automation of the Alex Platform provides the specialist tools necessary to securely cover the intersection between data security and data protection. To learn more about data security, data protection or how to achieve these with Alex, please request a free, personalized demo below.