What is Data Privacy? - Explanation & Meaning

Definition

Data privacy encompasses the principles, regulations, and practices that govern how personal data is collected, stored, used, and shared. It safeguards the right of individuals to maintain control over their personal information.

Technical explanation

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European standard for data protection and sets strict requirements for processing personal data. Core principles include purpose limitation, data minimization, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality. Privacy by design requires that data protection is built into system design, not added as an afterthought. Consent management platforms (CMP) manage user consent preferences for cookies and data processing. Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) evaluate risks of new processing activities. Technical measures include pseudonymization, anonymization, encryption, and access control. Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR) give individuals the right to access, correct, and delete their data. In 2026, enforcement is tightening: regulators impose higher fines and new legislation like the AI Act sets additional requirements for using personal data in AI systems.

How MG Software applies this

MG Software builds privacy-conscious applications following the privacy-by-design principle. We implement consent management, data minimization, and encryption in every application. We help clients map their data processing activities, establish processing records, and technically implement GDPR compliance. Our developers are trained in privacy-aware development and we conduct privacy audits on our own and client applications.

Practical examples

• An e-commerce site implementing a consent management platform that gives visitors granular control over which cookies and tracking tools are used.
• An HR software vendor applying pseudonymization to employee data so analyses are possible without being able to identify individual employees.
• A healthcare institution conducting a DPIA for a new patient portal and implementing additional security measures and access controls based on the findings.

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