In our digital and cyberspace world, data privacy is an increasingly important issue. Every day seems to bring another incident of a breach in data security, resulting in the theft of personal data affecting millions of us. Data security and privacy issues are not new. There was a growing concern since the 1970s and 1980s, well before we all logged into the Internet. Data Privacy Day, a January 28 holiday, encourages us to take steps to ensure our data security and personal privacy protection.

Hacking and breaking into corporate and government databases are regular events performed by young kids, cybercrooks, and foreign governments. Our privacy is also affected by companies that sell our personal contact information. That’s one way we get on those snail mail and email mailing lists, resulting in countless amounts of junk mail.

Today is a day for individuals and businesses large and small to make positive and effective efforts, to protect the privacy of their customers and their private personal data. It’s the perfect day for companies to hold forums and meetings to identify and eliminate weaknesses in their security systems.

It is also a day for you to get proactive in pushing both businesses and the government, to do more to protect private personal data and records.  

Data Privacy Day is an international effort.  Many corporations are international. And, many hackers are lurking on the internet from outside the U.S.