How Privacy Computing Protects Personal & Professional Data

Technology plays a critical role in modern life, whether it’s personal devices or an organization’s IT infrastructure. With technology comes the inherent risk of having all your data online that could be accessed by anyone with an internet connection.

The concept of privacy computing takes data security and privacy from a concern secondary to the development of digital products and services to a cornerstone of modern technology. 

Privacy computing, sometimes referred to as confidential computing, is a collection of secure data technologies that aim to keep user data private without impacting its accessibility and shareability. The practices of privacy computing apply a range of purely digital and purely physical approaches to maintaining the data privacy of users; this includes everything from encryption and secure communication to the physical safekeeping of servers and hard drives.

Privacy computing is one way you can implement a privacy-by-design approach to your organization, where privacy is taken into account throughout the structuring and development processes. However, there are several key principles that you should adhere to for maintaining data privacy on personal and professional levels:

Privacy computing works by building on a foundation of data security practices, rather than implementing them later on and separate from the infrastructure. Using encryption, user data remains encoded up until the moment an authorized individual uses their key to decode and access the data themselves, utilizing a zero-knowledge approach to limiting accessibility.

Encryption is the foundation of  a zero-knowledge architecture, in which only the owner of the data has the decryption key. This helps keep the data safe in case of a data breach or unauthorized access to the network.

Data masking is also an option for privacy-oriented computing, allowing companies to improve their services and offer additional functionality without exposing user data to further risk. This is done by recreating a version of the user’s data to be similar in structure but entirely different in content. However, this only works when the real data isn’t required for this particular functionality.

There are countless risks associated with poor data security practices, including customer data leaks, identity theft of users and employees, reputational damages to the company, and even financial losses so severe that they could put a company out of business. 

Most users and corporations tend to focus more on data security than data privacy. After all, you’d want to keep all sensitive data like financial records and social security numbers safe from exploitation. However, data privacy isn’t always talked about with the same urgency, and data encryption isn’t always enough on its own.

Data privacy underlines the user’s right to control access to their own personal data. This includes non-malicious use of personal data for analytics and marketing purposes without the user’s explicit consent.

Data security and data privacy are two necessary sides of the same coin. Fortunately, many local, federal, and regional regulatory requirements for professional data handling enforce user data privacy. Regulations like Europe’s GDPR, California’s CCPA, and the US’s HIPAA are all data privacy requirements enforceable by law.

Privacy and computing functionality are often portrayed as at odds with one another, primarily due to the high cost previously associated with implementing privacy measures. However, with privacy computing, companies can now more easily make the leap, allowing them to mitigate some of the greatest risks associated with poor data privacy practices, including:

Providers of electronic devices and digital services need to strike a balance between data privacy and usability. If the product is built requiring a great deal of personal user data to function, then it should be built following privacy-by-design principles from the start. That way, usability and functionality aren’t hindered by implementing privacy and security measures later on.

Duplicate data is usually the result of poor data management. It occurs when the same data is independently stored multiple times across the system. This complicates ensuring data security because hackers have multiple opportunities to gain access to user data.

Failing to implement proper PoLP principles increases the risk of wide-spread data breaches within your organization. Security and privacy in cloud computing rely on limiting who and what has direct access to the data at any point in time. Ideally, it should be kept to a minimum.

Businesses could also fall victim to spyware that quietly slips past their security measures undetected. Not implementing data security and privacy technology, like zero-knowledge architecture, could result in the theft of users’ data and information by malicious actors.

An intersection of data privacy and data security, ransomware attacks have the potential to paralyze business operations by blocking access to critical data. Similarly, users might lose access to their data stored on company servers. Ransomware attacks don’t always result in data leaks, but they’re still a threat to data integrity.

Depending on the information exposed in a data breach, users’ privacy could be violated if the data includes personal information and files. In most cases, as an individual, you have the right to seek legal action against a business for not protecting your data.

Private and personal information can be used against the user in social engineering attacks. The more the attacker knows about their target, the better their odds are of successfully tricking the user into action.

To keep data secure, consider switching from username-password credentials to passkeys and securely storing sensitive data in a password manager that uses zero-knowledge architecture.

For individual users, whether consumers or employees, some best practices for keeping your data secure include:

As for people in positions of power looking to maintain a secure system that keeps user data private, there are a few ways you can keep the data of users, employees, and business partners secure, such as:

Despite its numerous benefits, privacy computing isn’t without its challenges and limitations. For one, privacy measures quickly become outdated, and keeping up can be complicated or costly. This is especially true when implementing large-scale changes without hindering performance and functionality. Not to mention, different approaches to security and privacy are needed depending on the specific vulnerabilities of the dataset, whether it’s in transit, at rest, or archived.

Companies are always having to balance between ensuring the highest level possible of data security and privacy, and limiting data visibility and accessibility to employees. Furthermore, there’s the challenge of a constantly evolving security landscape, whether it’s new compliance regulations or emerging threats, such as zero-day exploits.

To mitigate some of these challenges, consider the benefits of zero-knowledge architecture when leveraging confidential computing at your organization.

Whether it’s at home or the office, it’s important to always take the time to implement the necessary precautions to ensure your data is protected. A good data privacy and security strategy is one built on a solid foundation of knowledge of the role data plays in your digital services and how you can minimize access permissions without limiting functionality.

Cybersecurity jargon abounds. Check out our guide that demystifies 58 of the most commonly used cybersecurity terms.

Dashlane

Dashlane is a web and mobile app that simplifies password management for people and businesses. We empower organizations to protect company and employee data, while helping everyone easily log in to the accounts they need—anytime, anywhere.

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