Privacy vs. Security: What’s the Difference?
by Sarah Harvey / February 27th, 2019
Privacy and security are terms that are often believed to be synonymous, but they’re actually quite different. Understanding what that difference is plays a key role in ensuring that your organization maintains a strong security posture, while also performing your due diligence to protect your customers’ sensitive data. In this webinar, our Director of Regulatory Compliance, Mark Hinely, discusses the differences between privacy and security, why understanding the difference matters, and how knowing the difference could benefit your organization.
What is the Difference Between Privacy and Security?
The difference between privacy and security comes down to what they’re safeguarding: either data or user identity. To better understand the difference between privacy and security, however, there are 7 key components to look at.
- Scope
- Particularity/Uniqueness
- Disclosures
- Access
- Data Usage and Third-Party Transfers
- Minimization
- Retention
Why Does Knowing the Difference Matter?
In a day and age when cybersecurity attacks are at an all-time high and the threat landscape continues to evolve, knowing which security and privacy requirements your organization must adhere to is critical. This is where the importance of understanding the difference between privacy and security comes into play. Why? We’ll give you a few reasons.
- People excel in their efforts when they know why they are doing what they’re doing. If your organization doesn’t understand why you need to follow certain security or privacy requirements, you might not actually comply with those requirements.
- Just because an organization keeps data secure doesn’t mean they’re keeping that data private.
- Everybody wants every privacy and security guarantee, but that’s not necessary or possible.
- Organizations might actually underachieve compliance if they’re not well-versed in the difference between which security and privacy requirements they must comply with.
- Businesses could make unnecessary efforts to achieve challenging compliance objectives that do not apply to them, wasting time, money, and personnel resources.
- Organizations could implement privacy and security controls or requirements incorrectly.
With the rise in data privacy regulations, organizations must make it a priority to know and understand the difference between privacy and security. To learn more about privacy and security, download the full webinar. For more information on how KirkpatrickPrice can help you meet your compliance needs, contact us today.
