January 28th is Data Privacy Day in Canada and U.S.: here are some data privacy day tips for consumers.
Share with Care
- Post in haste, repent at your leisure. Think about how what you post could be perceived by others, now and in the future. Also are you giving away information that could be used maliciously by others?
- Put the Care into the Share. Configure your privacy settings on all the web services and devices you use. The StaySafeOnline web site has marvellous information on how to do that on the most popular sites here.
- Remember the Golden Rule: post only about others as you would have them post about you.
Personal Information is Like Money
Personal Information is like money, value it.
- Don’t do business with companies that don’t value your privacy or clarify their privacy policies.
- Before you hand over your hard earned personal information, stop! Watch out for emails or web sites that ask for too much personal information.
- Get two steps ahead. Use two-factor authentication and email notifications when someone logs on from another computer.
The Law of the Land
If you’re dealing with a B.C. company, the B.C. provincial law PIPA applies. More information here. If you are dealing with a Canadian company, PIPEDA applies. More information here.
Canadian companies cannot store or host your personal information (date of birth, health information, SIN number, etc.) outside of Canada without your consent.
The privacy commissioner of Canada has made it clear to Facebook and other U.S. companies that they have to conform to Canadian privacy laws. See Facebook story here.
Privacy, the Internet and Your Kids
The StaySafeOnline folks in the States have compiled a ton of resources for parents. Everything from sexting, GPS tracking, games that want too much info. All those goodies can be found here.
More about how Data Privacy Day was started can be found here.
