Understanding Personal Data: What Counts and Why It is Important

It seems like every other day we get an email stating how a social media organization is going to give us more control over ‘our data” that is surreptitiously or openly captured by them. They are planning to implement more data controls and ‘you’ the user will apparently have more control over your ‘personal data’. The only catch though, is you have to read it well and understand it well.

We are living in an enhanced social media age where every move, every angle is clicked, zoomed and analysed.

On one side there are social media influencers who choose to do it for a living and on the other side, there are social media outcasts/security and privacy professionals who shun such activities openly. Whether you are a social media outcast or a social media powerhouse, things can get a stretched a bit far if one’s ‘personal data’ comes into play.

‘Personal Data’ is any data that absolutely and totally identifies YOU or any individual! This individual is known as a ‘data subject’.

Some general examples of personal data are your name, social security number, your mobile number, your house address. As a simple example, if you buy a product on a social media platform, the social media platform can indeed figure that ‘you’ bought the product. If you buy the same product again, they may even surmise that you like the product very much and very soon, you might have advertisements prodding you to buy similar products! Since the social media platform can identify that you indeed brought the product by your name, ‘your name’ is your personal data.

In addition, each industry may have their own personal data as well.

Let us take the example of the following industries:

Insurance industry – Name, insurance policy, insurance policy number are the ‘personal data’ here

Health industry – Name, patient ID are some examples of ‘personal data’ here.  In addition, we can have sensitive medical personal data like a patients medical information, prescriptions which can all fall under personal data.

Retail industry – Shopper’s name, address, financial information and even behavorial habits of a shopper fall under personal data which can be used to uniquely identify the shopper.

Organizations can use this ‘personal data’ and do many unethical things.

1. Companies will try to understand you invisibly and judge you based on your age, gender, shopping habits, financial habits. They can use this information to show advertisements exclusively for you. This shows that an organization is shadowing you and observing your clicks and likes invisibly almost like a silent stalker.
2. Organizations can also sell your personal data to third party apps who might start tailoring advertisements exclusively based on your browsing. Moving your personal data from one company to another is not a very comfortable feeling. Soon, your name, age and other personal data will be viewed by more set of eyes from a different vertical.

As we can understand, ‘personal data’ is real gold for people who are stalking you invisibly and it is information about you that is sought by everybody!

1. We can read the fine print on all privacy policies.
2. We can understand the different types of ‘personal data’ that are being collected.
3. We can also understand the processing of the personal data that is being collected.
4. All settings and controls have to be visited and privacy settings have to be correspondingly tweaked.
5. It is also good to know about the duration of storage of our personal data on different servers (30 days or 60 days or any other number of days) We also have the right to know when it will be deleted.
6. It is also good to understand some data privacy laws at a high level (GDPR, HIPAA, DPDPA).
7. Right to know, right to delete, right to be forgotten are all rights of a consumer in this digital age and it is good to be aware of all of them.

All these steps will help us to maintain our privacy to a certain extent. Ensuring absolute privacy online is still time away and it is always good to keep up with good privacy practices till then!

The complexities of global data privacy compliance in 2025 demand a proactive, integrated strategy, not just increased spending. If your organization is facing challenges with one-size-fits-all compliance models, incomplete data discovery and mapping, ensuring cross-border data transfer legality, or keeping pace with the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape across regions like the Middle East, India (DPDPA), and California (CCPA), Azpirantz provides the expert guidance you need.

We specialize in helping businesses establish robust data governance frameworks, implement Privacy by Design principles, and navigate specific requirements like consent-based processing and data localization. Our comprehensive Data Privacy Consulting services are designed to move you beyond reactive fixes, fostering a culture of privacy that enhances customer trust, strengthens your brand reputation, and secures your place in the new data economy.

Ready to achieve sustainable and authentic data privacy compliance?

Explore Azpirantz’s dedicated Data Privacy Consulting Services and partner with us to transform your privacy challenges into a strategic business advantage.

All uploads to Gemini apps like files, videos, photos will be automatically used to improve Google services for everyone else. To stop this, you do have to change the settings by visiting ‘Gemini Apps Privacy Hub’ page and tweak the settings for different pages

*This content has been created and published by the Azpirantz Marketing Team and should not be considered a professional advice. For expert consulting and professional advice, please reach out to [email protected].