Tuesday, January 28 is Data Privacy Day, an international effort to empower and educate people to protect their privacy and control their digital footprint. Here at AVAST, we will take the whole week to talk about privacy, and how we can make the protection of privacy and data a greater priority in our lives.

Make sure you take the My Privacy IQ quiz to test your knowledge (and maybe win a free license and avast! teddy.)

What is the difference between privacy and security?

While privacy and security overlap in certain ways, they are distinct concepts. Security is defined as “freedom from danger or risk” and “precautions to guard against crime, attack, etc.” You use antivirus software to help protect against a security breach or having your personal data stolen by cybercrooks.

Privacy is “the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life.” This summer, we saw how closely connected these two concepts are when Edward Snowden revealed, through a security breach, how big data companies were complicit with the NSA snooping into normal people’s private lives.

Here’s how The 'Zero-Knowledge' Privacy Foundation describes the differences:

Security refers to the ways we protect ourselves and our property. Privacy is about having the freedom to conceal aspects of ourselves from others.

Security is the first level of defense against unwanted intruders. Privacy is about having the freedom to conceal aspects of ourselves from others.

Security is the lock we have on our front door. Privacy is the set of blinds on your living room window.

Simple ways to guard your privacy

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you have seen these tips from the National Cyber Security Alliance before, but since it’s Data Privacy Day, we’ll repeat ourselves. :-) Please share these tips with someone you know.

• Secure your devices. Keep your devices from prying eyes. Set passcodes or pass phrases (long passwords) to be sure only you can access your smartphone, tablet or PC.

• Secure your accounts. Passwords are no longer the only protection from would-be hackers. Enable two-factor authentication to add another layer of security.

• Make passwords long, strong and unique. Passwords should be different for each account, have as many characters as allowed and include numbers, symbols and letters, capital and lowercase.

• Think before you app. Before downloading a mobile app, understand what information (your location, access to social networks, etc.) the app accesses to function.

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