Data Privacy Week 2026 runs January 26–30, and it’s a timely reminder that privacy is a set of choices, habits, and (sometimes) rights you can exercise. The National Cybersecurity Alliance frames this week as an international effort to help individuals and organizations respect privacy, safeguard data, and enable trust, with this year’s theme: “Take Control of Your Data.” (Stay Safe Online)
That theme matters because your online activity creates a trail of information (e.g.s. interests, purchases, location signals, and behavior patterns) that are collected by websites, apps, devices, and services. Some of it can even be tied to your physical life, like health or movement data. You can’t control every data point that gets generated, but you can control more than you think through repeatable behaviors and informed decisions.
What “Take Control of Your Data” means in everyday life
Start with a mindset shift: treat personal data like currency. Many “free” services are paid for with information about you—your attention, your clicks, your location, your contact list, your browsing history. Data Privacy Week’s own guidance puts it plainly: weigh the tradeoff between privacy and convenience and ask whether the access you’re granting is relevant to the service (the classic example: why would a simple game need your contacts?).
Then turn that mindset into a routine:
- Audit permissions: On your phone and laptop, review which apps can access your location, microphone, camera, photos, contacts, and Bluetooth. Keep what’s necessary; remove what isn’t.
- Trim the “data attic”: If you haven’t used an app or service in months, consider deleting the account (not just the app). Dormant accounts can still be data sources.
- Adjust settings, one platform per week: You don’t have to do everything today. Make it a habit—pick one service (email, social media, shopping, streaming) and tighten settings gradually.
A practical helper: the National Cybersecurity Alliance provides a “Manage Your Privacy Settings” resource with direct links to privacy settings pages across many common platforms.
How businesses and services collect (and infer) personal data
“Collection” isn’t only the information you type into a form. It’s also what can be inferred from patterns: device identifiers, browsing behavior, location history, purchase history, and engagement signals. Personal data can be stored for long periods and used to infer demographic or socioeconomic attributes and preferences—even from seemingly harmless details. (Stay Safe Online)
For faculty and students, this matters in a very campus-shaped way: learning platforms, publisher tools, citation managers, and proctoring/assessment tools can generate metadata about how we read, write, and research. Libraries sit right at this intersection, which makes privacy literacy part of research literacy: knowing what a tool collects is increasingly as important as knowing what it does.
AI and algorithmic data collection: what’s new (and what’s not)
AI didn’t invent surveillance, but it can make data more valuable by extracting meaning at scale. The National Cybersecurity Alliance’s Data Privacy Week programming explicitly calls out AI chatbots and algorithmic systems as today’s “high-attention” privacy zones. (Business Insider)
- Your prompts can be data. When you use an AI chatbot, you may share personal, sensitive, or proprietary information without realizing it (drafting emails, summarizing notes, uploading text, describing scenarios).
- Personalization can become price discrimination. Data Privacy Week includes a webinar on dynamic pricing—when algorithms set prices—raising the question of whether browsing history, location, or past purchases influence what you’re shown and what you pay. (Stay Safe Online Webinars)
A campus-friendly best practice: treat AI tools like public spaces unless your institution has a vetted, contract-backed, privacy-reviewed environment for them. When in doubt, don’t paste student records, health info, grades, or unpublished research into consumer tools.
Law and rights: a quick reality check
Data privacy rights vary widely by jurisdiction, and the legal landscape keeps evolving. Data Privacy Week’s “Privacy Law Made Simple” webinar outlines what options exist for access, consent, deletion, and enforcement.
It also helps to remember the bigger historical arc: the international “Privacy Day” tradition connects to the Council of Europe’s Convention 108, often described as the first legally binding international treaty focused on data protection (Data Protection Day). Canada has its own Data Privacy Week as well. Its theme this year is “Prioritize Privacy by Design.”
What you can do this week: a practical mini-checklist
Pick three actions you can do in 30 minutes:
- Turn on MFA (multi-factor authentication) for your primary email and campus-related accounts.
- Use a password manager and create long, unique passwords (12+ characters).
- Tighten privacy settings on one platform using the National Cybersecurity Alliance’s settings hub. (Take Control of Your Data)
You may find resources, webinars, and toolkits on the National Cybersecurity Alliance website.
Webinars this week:
Tuesday 1/27: Children’s Privacy in a Digital World
Wednesday 1/28: Privacy Law Made Simple
Thursday 1/29: Dynamic Pricing: When Algorithms Set the Cost
Friday 1/30: The Right to Be Forgotten: Deleting Your Online Data
Friday 1/30: Level Up Your Privacy Game!
Why this belongs in the library
Libraries have long treated privacy as a core value because intellectual freedom depends on the ability to read, explore, and research without being profiled. In 2026, privacy literacy is also a practical skill: it shapes how we choose tools, how we collaborate, how we protect research participants, and how we safeguard student information.
Helpful Resources (National Cybersecurity Alliance)
- Online Safety Basics
- How to Protect Yourself Against Deepfakes
- 7 Tips to Manage Your Identity and Protect Your Privacy Online
- Safeguarding Your Internet Activity with Incognito Mode
- What to Know about Stalkerware
International Resources
Kevin Gunn is Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at The Catholic University of America Libraries.