Recognizing Data Privacy Day by Protecting Your Privacy

The text discusses personal data protection in relation to both government surveillance and corporate data collection practices. It highlights the experiences of the author's family under the Securitate, a Romanian intelligence agency that spied on citizens during the communist era. The author then draws parallels between this historical context and modern-day concerns about digital privacy, citing examples such as retailers using personal data to target customers with specific products or services. The text also addresses the issue of access to computational power within companies for massive data analytics. It points out that while fast access to data is no longer a bottleneck, many organizations lack adequate privacy safeguards to protect user information. The author shares examples of good and poor practices in this area, emphasizing the importance of proper labeling, anonymization, and access controls. The main focus of the text is Gretel.ai, a platform that aims to make customer data available for analysis while ensuring personal information remains protected. By doing so, it seeks to balance privacy concerns with innovation in data-driven decision making. The author invites readers to explore Gretel.ai's use cases, blogs, and GitHub resources or reach out directly for more information.