What is the difference between data protection and privacy law?

Data protection and privacy law both protect personal information, but they are distinct in the extent of their coverage and function. Data protection focuses on the use of data to limit unauthorized access, theft, and other malicious activities from taking place. This includes relevant government policies and regulations as well as the implementation of safe storage standards. Privacy law on the other hand, is broader in scope and seeks to protect an individual’s right to privacy. This law includes provisions that prevent organizations from collecting, using, and sharing personal data without a legitimate reason. Additionally, privacy law sets out the rights of individuals to access, rectify, or even delete any personal information held by an organization. In short, data protection sets the technical standards of how data is stored, handled, and protected, while privacy law is focused on the rights of individuals with respect to their personal data. As technology progresses, data protection standards evolve to meet the needs of the current technological landscape, whereas privacy law is more general, and is constantly being updated and altered to provide more security to individuals against the misuse of their data.

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