The Facebook Blog

Today is Data Privacy Day, an international collaboration by governments, privacy professionals, academic institutions, businesses and nonprofits to raise awareness about data privacy and the protection of personal information. For Facebook, privacy is a core component of the products and features we build every day. It is critical that we give the more than 350 million people on Facebook the power to share what they want with whom they want while safeguarding their privacy.

To commemorate this day, we invited experts to share their perspectives... on the meaning of privacy in the digital age and offer advice for managing it online.


Alex Türk
Chairman, French Data Protection Commission

Because European citizens have experienced dark times when the exercise of our fundamental freedoms was seriously endangered, privacy has become one of our dearest possessions. Therefore, our goal today is not to adjust the development and pace of our privacy to the digital society, but on the contrary it is to master digital technology to ensure that privacy can be both preserved and enhanced.











U.S. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas
Ranking Member, House Energy and Commerce Committee and Co-Chair, Congressional Privacy Caucus

Barton

I am co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus because I think it's a serious issue, and Data Privacy Day recognizes the importance privacy plays in every American's life. My information is mine. I have the right to know exactly what information people are gathering about me—and exactly what they are doing with it. Regardless of the regulated status of a company or the specific data-gathering technology that a company is using, both public attention and our policy focus should remain on the protection of Americans' privacy. Good public policy would be technologically neutral, and it would not inadvertently create comparative advantages between companies. I also encourage all those involved in the industry's own process to move forward quickly with strong consumer protections and the most clear and transparent policies that are technologically possible.


Karen Curtis
Australian Privacy Commissioner

Curtis

For Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, Jan. 28 falls in the middle of our summer, so the Asia-Pacific Privacy Authorities' privacy celebration ("Privacy Awareness Week") is held in the first week of May. However, privacy protection is a truly global issue and government, business and the public should regularly reflect on their privacy rights and responsibilities.

For the individual, privacy is a commodity that is often only recognized and valued when it has been breached in some way. But you shouldn't wait until disaster strikes – be proactive and find out what your privacy rights are in your state or country, and what to do to safeguard your personal information. This becomes all the more important the more we interact online.

For business and government, privacy should not be seen just as a legal obligation, but also as an opportunity. As we say, good privacy is good business. Privacy can be a mechanism for building public trust in your brand, showing how your organization respects its customers and their personal information. Regularly review your privacy practices, and see how they can add value. Privacy—it's in your hands.


U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida
Ranking Member, House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet

Stearns

Most of our work product and personal records are now digitally stored and transferred. The time saving convenience of instantaneous communication means we all rely heavily on the Internet and the latest state-of-the-art technologies in our daily interactions. And, more often than not, all of our electronic communications leave behind a digital fingerprint that opens the potential for abuse if the information is in the wrong hands. That is why it is pertinent that we take the initiative to draw awareness to the importance of protecting sensitive personal information—including health and financial data—from misuse and theft.

I have introduced H. Res. 902 in an effort to call attention to the privacy challenges of electronic communications and technologies and to underscore the importance of data privacy in a rapidly changing environment. In particular, Data Privacy Day is designed to help citizens understand more about the ways in which their personal information is collected, used and shared, and to provide resources and educational materials that will allow people to take steps to better protect their privacy. On Data Privacy Day, educators, students, consumers, academics, privacy professionals, nonprofit organizations, corporations and small businesses, and government representatives at the state, provincial and federal levels will come together in a variety of venues to discuss key data privacy issues.


Ann Cavoukian
Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario, Canada

Cavoukian

Privacy is the foundation upon which democracy is built. Our right to control the collection, use and disclosure of information about ourselves is the right upon which our other freedoms rest. Therefore, to preserve our privacy is to preserve that which we cherish but often take for granted – the freedom and liberty that define the open society in which we live. In over 20 years as a privacy professional, I have witnessed how the growth of technology has brought exceedingly new challenges to the protection of privacy. Individuals are increasingly subjected to new forms of data collection, from both private and public sector organizations. The growth of privacy-invasive technologies such as biometrics, video surveillance and radio frequency identifiers has intensified the need to sharpen our focus on privacy and the best methods to protect it.

However, unlike some critics, who view technology as essentially eroding privacy, I have always believed that its support may be enlisted to protect privacy. I have worked with many organizations, including Facebook in recent years, to instil the philosophy of embedding privacy proactively into technology itself. I call this Privacy by Design (PbD). On this Data Privacy Day, my office is holding a sold-out event, "Privacy by Design: The Gold Standard," focusing on the positive-sum deployment of new technologies, business practices and networked infrastructure in a manner that delivers tangible results on the promise of PbD. Join us at www.privacybydesign.ca.


U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania
Member, House Energy and Commerce Committee

Doyle

The United States has a piecemeal approach to privacy. Your phone call records are protected from intrusion and your cable and video rental habits are protected from resale. But marketers can easily buy your magazine subscription data, and your credit card company is probably reselling information about what you buy to others. Someone, and not just your neighbor, knows if you own a dog or a camera.

Getting off the Internet isn't going to stop some database from collecting information about you. Practically the only way to prevent anyone else knowing anything about you is to literally shut yourself off from the outside world. And that only works if you don't like human interaction and you don't mind missing out on services like Facebook that bring you and your friends closer together or that help us find the information we want to know. After all, it's hard to look something up unless someone else has shared it.

There have been preliminary discussions about legislation to better protect Americans online privacy, but most members of the House and Senate need to know more about this issue. I encourage you to celebrate Data Privacy Day by letting your member of Congress and senators know how you think your privacy should be controlled.


Stephen Balkam
CEO, Family Online Safety Institute

Balkam

Few too many people read privacy policies and set privacy settings. Data Privacy Day is a good time to think about what information you are revealing about yourself on the web and take the time to talk to kids about the content you are posting and where you are posting it. We need to work together to be more responsible digital citizens.












Tim Sparapani, Facebook's director of public policy, is speaking at the FTC Exploring Privacy workshop in Berkeley, Calif., for Data Privacy Day.