Data Privacy Week: Why It Matters to Notarize

Data Privacy Day, January 28th, is an international event to raise awareness and promote best practices for data privacy and protection. Starting this year, the U.S. has extended the day to a weeklong event — Data Privacy Week.

Why do we celebrate Data Privacy Week?

The idea of data privacy has been around for some time, but it took a while for real legal protections to emerge.The German state of Hessia enacted the world's first data protection legislation in 1970, and the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued an influential report on data privacy called Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens in 1973. But it wasn’t until this day (January 28th) in 1981, that the Council of Europe’s Convention 108 (still the only international treaty on data privacy) was opened for signature – taking the data privacy discussion international. Data Privacy Week commemorates this event by spreading awareness about data privacy and educating people on protective measures. 

The message of Data Privacy Week is more relevant than ever as data is constantly aggregated, linked and used to generate personal profiles that are utilized by businesses the world over. It's about using data responsibly, and in line with consumer's expectations. Privacy, in a word, is trust — and online trust is paramount in today’s world, with the pandemic causing a rapid increase in online transactions, coupled with big platforms increasingly misusing data and misstating their practices.

Notarize enhances privacy

The last two years have both amplified the data privacy challenges organizations face due to the pandemic and spurred advancements to the technologies that can mitigate those challenges. Notarize is proud to be part of the solution. 

Notarize helps solve some of the privacy challenges created by “in-person” signing and notarization requirements by expanding the concept of “in-person” to include remote online meetings. The convenience of online notarization limits the risks (health, privacy, etc.) of in-person transactions and also removes the need to have a notary physically come to your house — or for you to travel to a notary. In addition, Notarize enhances privacy by collecting the least amount of data possible to conduct a transaction. Documents notarized on the Notarize platform are also “tamper-sealed,” which helps prevent forged or altered documents that include false information about you or others.

Notarize is committed to providing services that help our customers complete transactions securely online. It is our mission to bring trust online by keeping data secure, only collecting the data we need, and using it solely for the purposes stated when we collected it.

Pro tip from our own data privacy team: You have a role in protecting your own privacy. Take the time to review the privacy settings on the apps and websites you visit, and where you have the option, limit sharing with third-parties unless it makes sense.

If you’d like to read more about Notarize’s privacy practices, you can view them here.