Why does privacy matter?
Privacy the traditional way doesn't do any more
In the current age of data exploitation, your privacy is threatened and, consequently, your freedom as a human being. The individual's interest in the privacy of their data has grown at the same pace that this data is used by the industry to generate and obtain value from this information. Recently, companies have realized this interest in privacy and seek to use techniques to obtain information from data without breaches and breaches of privacy and demonstrate this to their customers. Furthermore, the great nations around the world have developed mechanisms, through law, to defend the privacy and security of its citizens' data.
If your company deals with data, it is important to know how to answer the following questions:
What do you want your customer’s data for?
How long will your company have access to this data?
What security mechanism will you use?
Adaptation to the General Data Protection Law
The General Data Protection Law determines, among other obligations, that the data and processes that use personal data must guarantee the anonymity of individuals who have had their data used. For this, it is necessary that each and every company that holds data on its customers or partners use anonymization processes to ensure that their company is in compliance with the LGPD.
What is anonymization?
It is the process for anonymizing data, that is, ensuring that the individuals owning the data are not discovered and identified. Anonymization can be done in several ways, however, it is desirable that the least possible modification be made to the data to ensure its good use, and still ensure the anonymity of individuals.
Problems that can arise from lack of investment in privacy
Politics and public health
Due to the pandemic, the Department of Health of Ceará has published a list of results of the Covid-19 exams of people from Ceará, duly anonymized, without the name and CPF of the patient. Parallel to this, the Electoral Court of Ceará published the list of candidates for councilors in the State's municipalities in the last election. A simple association between the two lists allowed the re-identification of 72% of the candidates elected for the Fortaleza election. Thus, sensitive information from the candidates, such as exam results and declared comorbidities, were discovered.
Hospital secrecy
A hospital in the Federal District had to compensate a family victim of a scam for breach of confidentiality. A person claiming to be an employee of the Hospital contacted the hospitalized patient's son, claiming the need for an extra exam and asked to transfer the corresponding amount. Supposedly, the criminals had access to the patient's relative's number through the hospital's records, configuring a failure in the provision of the service. Data privacy in hospitals is essential, due to the existence of sensitive data.