Privacy in Real Life: Many Don't Care, Some Guess, and Only Few Know

“Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.” (Wikipedia) With advances of digital applications, environments and data banks, privacy more and more related to issues of controlling storage and distribution of personal data in the digital form. There are three possibilities to achieve that goal: technical (security solutions), organizational solutions, and regulatory (legal) solutions. Use of each of them individually depends, on one hand, on complexity, sometimes even price, and on the other hands on awareness of individuals, organizations, institutions in charge, and even entire societies. In this talk we will review first three different types of sensitive personal data that can be used as models for privacy concerns: identification data, financial data and medical data.  We will review various technology solutions available today, various organizational forms, and various European and US regulations. Conclusions will be offered in the form of practical guidelines to individual to increase control and protection of their own personal data in order to improve privacy and security concerns.