Photo by Josh Hallett.
Privacy (and Digital Privacy) is one of those terms that I’ve thrown around a lot in the last few years. However, I never took the time to define it.
In the digital era, privacy is the ability of an individual to control how their personal information is collected, used, shared, stored, analyzed, and retained in digital systems. It is no longer just about “being left alone.”; though, that continues to be a delightful benefit. It’s about control, transparency, and power in a world where nearly every action generates data.
Digital privacy can be defined as: The right and practical ability of a person to determine what personal data about them is collected, how it is processed, who has access to it, and how long it is retained across digital networks, platforms, and systems.
IEEE, Wikipedia, GeeksForGeeks, and many more all have their own definitions of digital privacy.
Digital Privacy Is Different from Traditional Privacy
Historically, privacy meant:
- Physical seclusion (think the last part of “The Call of the Wild”)
- Confidential communications
- Protection from intrusion
Today, privacy concerns:
- Massive data aggregation
- Persistent digital records
- Cross-border data flows
- Invisible tracking
- Platform ecosystems
- Government and private-sector Surveillance that wasn’t possible a few decades ago.
The scale, permanence, and monetization of data make digital privacy fundamentally more complex and harder to actually achieve. In the United States, there is an entire industry of data brokers and advertising platforms that collect and sell data about consumers. There are laws that are supposed to limit their activities and request that data be removed, but in many cases, the entire system is put together to make that as difficult as possible.
Components of Digital Privacy
Data Collection
Every digital interaction generates data:
- Browsing history
- Location data
- Purchasing behavior
- Biometric identifiers
- Metadata (who you contacted, when, and from where)
- The weird sex stuff that you are into…
Digital privacy asks: Should this data be collected at all?
Consent & Control
Modern privacy frameworks emphasize:
- Informed consent
- The right to access (your) data
- The right to correct or delete (your) data
- The right to restrict or object to gathering / processing (your) data
“Your data” is generally understood to mean data about you in this context.
These principles are central in laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and California’s California Consumer Privacy Act. See my “Data Privacy Laws / Regulations Around the World” post for more information.
Transparency
Individuals should know:
- What data is collected
- What is being done with that data
- Why it is collected
- Who it is shared with
- How long it is stored
Opaque data practices undermine digital privacy.
Data Security
Privacy depends on security. If data is poorly protected, privacy collapses. This is the topic of just about every other post I’ve created in the past 20 years.
Security includes (but, is not limited to):
- Encryption
- Integrity
- Non-Repudiation
- Authentication
- Access controls (Authorization)
- Audit Logging
- Breach notification systems
I explore this more in my “Application Security Models” post.
Surveillance & State Actors
Digital privacy also concerns:
- Government surveillance
- Law enforcement access
- National security monitoring
In some countries, surveillance laws significantly limit practical privacy — even if private-sector protections exist. This is an important point: privacy from the local government and privacy from the private sector are two very different conversations.
Profiling & Algorithmic Use
In the digital era, privacy is not just about raw data; it’s about:
- Behavioral profiling
- Predictive analytics
- AI-driven decision-making
- Automated scoring (credit, insurance, risk assessments)
Even anonymized data can often be re-identified (de-anonymized) or used to influence behavior.
The Core Tension
Digital privacy exists in tension between:
- Convenience and Control
- Security and Liberty
- Innovation and Regulation
- Global free flow of data and Data Sovereignty
Sums up much of the state of the modern world doesn’t it?
Summary
In the digital era, privacy is less about hiding and more about agency. That is the ability to decide how your digital identity is created, interpreted, and used. Many people will tell you that privacy is dead in this age. I’m a bit more optimistic about the situation, but you have to put in work to achieve it. Most people are not prepared to do that.
Want to help your own digital privacy and security posture? Consider very carefully what companies, apps, websites, products, etc you use in your daily life.