Kaspersky North America has announced its continued commitment to champion international Data Privacy Day 2021, an initiative that generates awareness about the importance of privacy and reminds organizations that privacy is good for business. In addition to championing year-over-year, Kaspersky is also showing support globally by partnering in an art collaboration with contemporary artist, Felipe Pantone.

Led annually by the National Cyber Security Alliance, key themes for Data Privacy Day 2021 encourage consumers to "Own Your Privacy," while urging businesses to "Respect Privacy." Both themes raise awareness about data privacy best practices that will educate consumers about owning and controlling the data they generate, and urge businesses to respect consumers' privacy and safeguard data. Kaspersky advocates that keeping personal data and online interactions secure is fundamental to ensuring technology continues to play a positive and essential role in our lives.

The collaboration between Kaspersky and Felipe Pantone stands on a solid basis of shared values, such as the passion for innovation and constant improvement. For this partnership, the artist has created a unique piece, representing a futuristic shield aimed at visualizing digital protection. By jointly presenting the art piece the global cybersecurity company and the renowned artist aim to raise awareness about online privacy, which goes far beyond safeguarding data, to protecting people's digital identities just as they would their physical ones.

"Data is all around us - from mobile phones to laptops, smartwatches, and smart homes. At the same time, data is also one click away from falling into the wrong hands," says Marco Preuss, director of the Global Research & Analysis Team in Europe at Kaspersky. "With digitalization continuing to grow around the world, many services are becoming more and more data-driven. Whilst the collection of users' personal information can help to enrich consumer experiences and opportunities, it's important that we as a society are aware of the potential risks and threats when sharing personal data online. This sharing is not only a risk, but sometimes a certain danger, thus it's important that we reflect on what could happen to digital privacy and data protection - so that we can continue to help keep everyone's sensitive information safe."

Kaspersky recommends adhering to the following practices to safeguard personal data:

• Be conscious of what personal information you share online, especially when it comes to posting photos online with IDs, tickets and billing documents. Any information you post is at risk of falling into the wrong hands.
• Ensure you always check permission settings of all social media accounts and apps you use, to minimize the likelihood of your data being shared or stored by third parties - and beyond - without your knowledge. Use Kaspersky's Privacy Checker to help you explore how to change the privacy settings for your online services to take control of your personal data.
• Use two-factor authentication to secure your primary email, which is connected to banking services and other important sites. If you want to login to ambiguous services, it is best to create a secondary email address.
• Use a VPN when connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi networks.
• Avoid using weak or repeated passwords. Test the strength of your passwords at https://password.kaspersky.com/. Use Kaspersky Password Manager to generate and secure unique passwords for every account.
• Stop sharing personal data with online merchants (which is used for ad targeting) by accessing key features in cybersecurity solutions, such as the Private Browsing feature found in Kaspersky Total Security and Kaspersky Internet Security.
  

Learn more about how to protect your online data here. You can also read about privacy predictions for 2021 from Kaspersky's leading cybersecurity experts here.