Knowledge MaxxingPrivacy risk
Privacy risk is the potential for personal data to be misused, exposed, or linked in ways that harm the individual it describes.
Prerequisite: Personal data
What matters
Assessing privacy risk means thinking beyond a data breach alone, including risks like data being combined with other sources to reveal something a person never intended to share.
Example
Combining someone's public social media posts with their purchase history could reveal sensitive details neither dataset alone would expose, a privacy risk beyond a simple leak.
Common misconception
Privacy risk is not limited to the danger of a data breach; data being used or combined in unintended ways is a risk even without any unauthorized access occurring.
Recall question
What kind of privacy risk can occur even without any data breach happening?