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( PII), such as name, location, contact details, or online behaviour, is shared. Just like choosing who to speak to in private, people often want to limit how their data is collected or used. A strong data privacy approach helps prevent discrimination, surveillance, and misuse of information.
Recognised by global treaties like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, privacy includes the right to keep thoughts, identity and behaviours confidential, both online and offline and to decide who accesses personal information.
Much of what internet users do online is tracked, because the greater the volume and detail of the data, the more it is worth – and the more attractive
People are getting savvier by exerting their right to consent or not to the collection, storage, use and sale of their data. Having one’ s identity and activities mined and potentially stolen is no longer the inevitable cost of being active online. it is to cyberthieves. Recently, M & S announced that customer data was stolen in a ransomware attack, which included contact details, household information, online order history and Dates of Birth. M & S is still unable to process online orders and manage in-store inventory. M & S reported a £ 120 million loss for Q1 2025, mainly due to lost sales and downtime and £ 700 million in lost market value. The long-term impact on customers is even harder to identify. How much of their personal information and shopping habits might be used by criminals in future phishing and social engineering attacks?
Sleepwalking into privacy risks
Individuals often unknowingly compromise their privacy by sharing more personal information online than necessary, by failing to review and adjust privacy settings and by neglecting to consider the implications of online activities. Take public‘ free’ WiFi as an example; it’ s often not truly free, but offered in exchange for your personal information, and security is often low. When users connect to unsecured public networks, their data( logins, emails, PII) can easily be intercepted by malicious actors through methods like man-in-the-middle attacks.
WiFi providers can profit by tracking who you are and monitoring your online activity while connected, pushing targeted ads and so on. This can lead to
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