January 28th marks the annual Data Privacy Day, a day to highlight and educate people and organisations on how individual’s privacy should be protected. To mark the day there will be numerous events held worldwide to raise awareness about privacy and data protection.

This video from Belgium is one of the more powerful demonstrations of how people can leak their personal information online and potentially how it could be abused by others.

For organisations looking to determine how they should be protecting the personal data entrusted to them, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s Office has a useful self-assessment checklist. If your organisation gathers information from individuals then this is an excellent resource for you to use.

If you are looking to develop applications and/or services then it is important to ensure you design privacy in from the very beginning. ENISA’s ” Privacy and Data Protection by Design – from policy to engineering” document is an excellent resource.

Happy Data Protection Day !!