Data Privacy Week 2026
Thankfully, for me, a lot is going on in January (and not just dry January either) that’s giving me a lot of content! We’ve talked about Public Domain Day, Women in Tech, and Wikipedia Day. We’re ending the month on Data Privacy Week.
What is Data Privacy Week?
Data Privacy Week is the annual celebration of protecting and spreading awareness of online (and offline) privacy.
How do we define “data?”
Your email, social media accounts, and communities you’re involved in have your data. Your car, watch, and even your home appliances have your data. The content that you post online, from memes to videos to text, is also your data. Even snail mail from trusted sources is data.
In theory, and in a perfect world, your data should only be owned by you and it should also be private. However, we do not live in a perfect world, so instead, we learn how to protect ourselves, and our data, online.
Why is data privacy important?
Data about you is used to determine:
- Your socioeconomic status
- Where you live
- What race and gender you are
- Preferences
As mentioned, in a perfect world, the data about you should be owned by you, but in reality, it is not. Companies and advertisers use the data they collect to make assumptions about your potential needs and wants. An example would be how you interact with accounts and ads on Instagram informs the algorithm what other accounts and ads for you to make future purchases or to follow.
How do I manage my data privacy?
The National Cybersecurity Alliance has you covered. Here is a very robust list, with links, to online platforms from Amazon to Zelle on how to manage your privacy settings for each service.
How do I control my data?
Here are a few simple steps you can start with right now to control how your data is collected, stored, and used.
- When creating, updating, or agreeing to services, think about what is convenience over privacy. Does that service need to know something about you that is irrelevant to the service such as your phone number?
- Can you access privacy controls for those accounts and services to modify to meet your needs?
- If an app or service is asking you for something, such as why does Google Chrome need to know my bluetooth devices or Candy Crush my contacts, ask why they need to know that data before agreeing.
What are ways to protect myself on and offline?
Aren’t you in luck! I teach an hour long workshop, Digital Hygiene: Cybersecurity for the Rest of Us ($99).
If taking a workshop isn’t up your alley, the workshop’s slide deck is available ($19). The deck gives you everything from the workshop in one convenient and easy to reference doc.
Interest piqued? What’s in the workshop (and slide deck):
- Different scams from social engineering to password cracking
- Creating strong passwords and using a password manager
- What a VPN is and why you should use it
- Freezing your credit report and using a free Google service to keep tabs of yourself online
- Links to resources recommended as well as other best practices
This is just the tip of the iceberg!
This all sounds kind of scary!
It can be scary but by being smart, using best practices, and keeping an eye on your data, you can safely enjoy your time online.
References
- Federal Trade Commission. “Privacy and Security.” Federal Trade Commission, 2024, www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/privacy-security. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.
- —. “Data Privacy Week | Bitwarden.” Bitwarden, 2025, bitwarden.com/blog/data-privacy-day/. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.
- —. “Data Privacy Week.” Yale Cybersecurity, 27 Jan. 2023, cybersecurity.yale.edu/data-privacy-week. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.
- —. “Data Privacy Week – National Cybersecurity Alliance.” Staysafeonline.org, 2025, www.staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week. Accessed 25 Jan. 2026.
- —. “*Privacy Not Included: A Buyer’s Guide for Connected Products.” Mozilla Foundation, 2023, www.mozillafoundation.org/en/privacynotincluded/. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.