How Do Personalised Smart Apps Protect User Data?
It’s Data Privacy Day, so One Beyond has a special blog to highlight how the balance between innovative technology and data privacy has become progressively more difficult to control, due to the software we use daily becoming smarter. For many businesses, this raises questions around investing in smart software applications without jeopardising data privacy. The answer can be found in ‘privacy by design’.
Personalised Applications
Many applications available have the technological capabilities to create a personal experience for us. Tailored user experiences help us remember important dates, nudge us to complete a task and even help us connect better with the world. However, it could be argued that personalised applications pose larger data risks. As a service provider, we are dedicated to delivering tailored solutions that don’t gamble with user privacy.
Privacy by Design
Privacy by Design is a framework issued in 1995 and further revised in 2011. When a product is being developed it is imperative that data privacy is built-in throughout the process; not as an afterthought. The seven principles of Privacy by Design act as fundamental pillars for designing applications and programmes using data privacy best practice.
Proactive not reactive
Data privacy should always be preventative rather than remedial. Developers should plan for privacy invasion rather than addressing problems as and when they appear. Prevention is better than cure and Privacy by Design adopts methodologies around risk to assure issues don’t arise in the first place.
Privacy as the default
No application or piece of software should require a user to protect their own data. Privacy by Design means maximum security is a basic functionality of any app which means that there is automatic protection in place at all times.
Privacy embedded into design
Privacy should never be an afterthought or a pleasant additional extra. From day one, privacy should be embedded in the entire design process. Data privacy should be an integrated feature of all smart applications and should not deter affect user functionality or experience.
Full functionality
Data privacy should have no impact on user experience. Privacy by Design sets out to achieve a solution that delivers the full value of an application without comprising the safety of users’ data. This approach means developers are encouraged to create solutions so that all features can be included as opposed to decreasing functionality to make protecting data easier.
End-to-end security
By incorporating data privacy into every stage of the development of a solution, you will be able to ensure that the system is designed to securely collect, use, retain and destroy user data in alignment with data protection regulations. This creates the foundation for safe end-to-end handling of user information without having to weld together various data management processes.
Visibility and transparency
Visibility is a key element of Privacy by Design. The framework seeks to remain transparent to stakeholders so that all technology involved is operating according to devised objectives at the start of application planning.
Respect for user privacy
When developing a smart app, the interests of the users should be paramount. Software needs to be user-centric and employ measures such as empowering user-friendly options and strong privacy settings.
