Privacy: In pursuit of Information security awareness

The debate regarding the nature of an individual’s privacy rights have increasingly centred on the threats posed by technological advances and the disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII). However, the disclosure of PII is often affected by the degree of privacy appetite of individuals. This is often dependent on their understanding of the efficacy of privacy enabling technologies (PETs) towards the protection of privacy. Therefore, the establishment of policy, regulations, and laws seek to mitigate the instances of unsolicited disclosure of PII, which may arise through ignorance or malice. This is done not only to protect the privacy rights of individuals, but also to ensure that the necessary flow of information required for the provision of goods and services is not impeded. However, the protection of privacy will only occur when the appropriate balance is found between keeping information private and making it public. This balance is dependent on the producers and consumers of information understanding the concept of informational privacy through increased awareness. Therefore, this paper considers the nature of privacy through a brief literature analysis of multi-disciplinary privacy theory and arrives at an appropriate understanding of informational privacy. Pertinent to an understanding of informational privacy is a discussion of the type of information that needs to be protected, namely PII. Thereafter, the fair information practices (FIPs), OECD privacy principles [24] and OECD guidelines for establishing a security culture [27] are discussed. This discussion results in an informational privacy model, which can be utilised to ultimately educate the producers and consumers of information about privacy. Thereby improving security awareness and residually fostering a security culture. Keywords—Privacy; Awareness; Personally Identifiable Information.