“Privacy” is the Word for 2013 and Beyond

Each December, most dictionary publishers pick one word that they feel best embodies the previous year. Sometimes those words are fad-based (think Oxford Dictionaries’ choice of “selfie” for 2012), but sometimes they select a word that carried great importance and resonated throughout the world throughout the year. For 2013, Dictionary.com – the most visited online dictionary – picked a word that should hit close to home for everyone in modern society: privacy.

Of course, the choice makes perfect sense in a year where Edward Snowden’s controversial revelation of data collection tactics used by the National Security Agency (NSA) dominated headlines, stories about data breaches made waves throughout the commercial and public sector landscapes, and social media continued to grow as one of the dominant forms of communication. As a company dedicated to helping organizations ensure private or sensitive information is available only to people that have a right to access it, and subsequently protected from those who do not, privacy is a big deal to AvePoint – so we could not agree more with Dictionary.com’s choice. Throughout the year, our team has worked hard to help you understand data privacy, and we’re happy to share the resources below to help you learn more about this vital topic.

As a starting point, you can learn a lot about what data privacy means to organizations today and how it has continually grown in importance in recent years from the following video featuring International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) President & CEO J. Trevor Hughes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eniaZVpXBc

You can also read more about privacy and some of the prevalent issues and stories related to it in the following posts published throughout 2013:

· Not from Your Grandmother’s Kitchen: Online Privacy and Cookies by Vice President of Risk Management and Compliance Dana Simberkoff

· Building Trust with Compliance Detector by Co-CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Tianyi (TJ) Jiang

· Compliance Guardian: Monitoring as Part of your Privacy & Secure Data Compliance Program by Robert Yonaitis

· Privacy Basics & Compliance Detector by Robert Yonaitis

· To Opt-in or Opt-out is Still a Central Theme of Privacy by Robert Yonaitis

· IAPP Privacy Academy – Takeaways from Stewart Baker’s Keynote by Senior Compliance Solutions Specialist Marc Dreyfus

· IAPP Privacy Academy – Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson Shares Privacy Perspectives by Compliance Solutions Specialist Andrew McDevitt

· Awaiting the European Commission Data Protective by Compliance Solutions Specialist Ralph O’Brien

Finally, our team also contributed some great content that relates to privacy for industry publications:

· Ensuring Compliance: Information Types Your Organization Should Be Concerned About by Dana Simberkoff for the AIIM Expert Blog

· Information Security Checklist: Best Practices for SharePoint Security by Robert B. Yonaitis for SharePoint Pro

· Data Privacy Day – Promoting a Trustworthy Computing Environment by Andrew McDevitt for StaySafeOnline.org

Unlike “selfie,” “privacy” is not a word that is destined to fall out of the lexicon anytime soon and become a thing of the past. It will continue to be a hot button issue in 2014. With a number of new privacy regulations are already slated to be put in place within the first months of the year, organizations will need to ensure they are informed and prepared with the right solutions to secure their enterprise data. Fortunately, that’s where AvePoint comes in. Visit our website to learn how you can start 2014 off right by educating yourself and assessing your IT environments as well as mitigating risk of privacy policy violations for your organization.