Everyone is talking about data protection. But very few people have dealt with it in depth themselves. What does data protection actually mean and what are the consequences of carelessly handling your own data or the data of your customers?
With this article, we not only want to inform you, but also to sensitize you. Afterwards, you should no longer ask yourself why data protection on the Internet is important. You will also learn how we at Friendly Captcha support our customers in this important topic and what simple solution we have developed.
What Is Data and Who Owns It?
By data, we mean personal data. These can be very diverse. One’s own medical record is one of them. The history of where you live or the amount of credit you have on your account are other examples.
All personal data is confidential, not just the examples mentioned above. You yourself decide who you want to share information about yourself or your whereabouts with. This is why data protection is so important.
Why Are Strangers Interested in My Data
When you think of data theft, you probably immediately think of credit card fraudsters who have obtained a credit card holder’s data and are now using it to go shopping. And it’s absolutely true that if data protection is inadequate, this form of data theft will also happen.
But it doesn’t always have to be fraud when companies or private individuals use personal data for their own purposes. Companies in particular are trying to optimize their advertising expenditure. Targeted advertising is the keyword here. If a person who is not yet a customer can be assessed because relevant data is available, then tailored advertising can take place.
Would you like an example? If a company knows that people like to go to Denmark and fish, then it can display targeted advertising on websites for vacation accommodations right on the water. The chance that the website visitor will click on it is much greater than if you were to advertise vacations in general.
What Do Companies Have to Watch Out for When It Comes to Data Protection?
Legislators all around the world have also recognized the explosive nature of inadequate data protection. This was the basis for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in the EU in 2018, which results in comprehensive obligations for companies and website operators [1]. Those who fail to comply with these must expect heavy fines.
There are principles for the processing of personal data that everyone who processes data must adhere to. These principles include:
- Purpose limitation: Data about individuals may only be collected for a legitimate purpose.
- Data economy: Only absolutely necessary data may be processed.
- Limitation of storage: Storage is only permitted for as long as it is necessary for the processing of the data.
- Accuracy: All data used must be correct.
- Accountability: Those who process and store data must be able to demonstrate compliance with the principles.
Because most customers understand why data protection is so important, companies and website operators invest a lot of money to ensure compliance with all the requirements and the protection of personal data.
How Website Operators Can Ensure Data Privacy
Why data privacy is important to businesses stems from the customers’ need to know that their own information is safe. Companies can take various measures, some of which are visible to customers, while others are hidden from view.
In the following, we will present some of these methods and explain how they affect the security of customer data.
The Data Protection Officer
In order to manifest that the topic of data protection is taken seriously, larger companies in particular have a data protection officer. For smaller companies, there is the option of outsourcing the function to an external service provider.
Because data protection is important to companies, naming a data protection officer underscores that they are living up to their responsibility. Those who act as data protection officers have time, in addition to their actual duties in the company, to familiarize themselves with the requirements and implementation of data protection.
However, the appointment of a data protection officer is still far from satisfactory coverage of the topic of data protection. It is also important to consistently implement data protection measures, particularly with regard to the company’s own website, as this is publicly available to interested parties, customers and partners of the company and their user data is processed when they visit the website. A crucial point here is the use of protection systems for the website. This includes, among other things, adequate protection against bots and spam.
Protection Against Bots and Spam
Companies must process all data that comes to them in accordance with the strict GDPR requirements. It’s a big help if you can keep data processing to a minimum. This includes fending off automated messages and requests like those sent by so-called bots around the clock.
You surely know the request to confirm that you are not a bot when you want to send a request. In some cases, you have to click on certain motifs to do so. There is a cloud-based advancement here. At Friendly Captcha, we’ve developed a blockchain solution that automatically answers the query of whether you’re human. This saves you a lot of time and gives the company whose website you’re visiting peace of mind that you’re making a genuine request.
Conclusion: Why Data Protection is Important
The answer to why data protection is important is different for customers and companies. However, data protection on the Internet in particular is of eminent importance for both sides. A company that has a data leak will have to contend with considerable reputational damage. Potential customers who are particularly careful with their data will look for an alternative provider.
For customers who have to disclose confidential data when making a purchase or taking out a subscription, it is important that this sensitive data does not fall into unauthorized hands.
The question of why data protection is important is one that all companies must ask themselves. Small start-ups as well as globally operating large corporations. If you want to protect your company from numerous bots and spam messages, we can help you with our innovative CAPTCHA solution.
Find out more about our various packages, which we have tailored to the different needs of our customers. You can get a simple solution for a single website. But we also offer solutions for companies that can protect an entire organization from spam and abuse.
