Privacy as Confidentiality: How Confidentiality Supports Privacy in Cybersecurity

In cybersecurity, privacy and confidentiality are closely connected, yet they represent distinct concepts. Understanding the relationship between the two is critical for designing systems that safeguard sensitive information effectively.

While privacy focuses on the right of individuals to control access to their personal information, confidentiality is a technical mechanism used to protect that information from unauthorized access. Confidentiality acts as a fundamental tool to enable and enforce privacy, particularly in digital interactions.

The Relationship Between Privacy and Confidentiality

According to the Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (CyBOK), privacy technologies aim to allow users to benefit from services while minimizing the information they expose. Confidentiality supports this goal by ensuring that any information exchanged remains hidden from unauthorized entities.

In other words, if privacy is the end goal, confidentiality is one of the primary means to achieve it.

For example, when using messaging apps, privacy expectations are that your conversations remain between you and the intended recipient. Confidentiality mechanisms like end-to-end encryption make this possible by ensuring that even the service provider cannot access the content of your messages.

Explore how encryption strengthens confidentiality in our detailed guide: What Is End-to-End Encryption and How It Works.

How Confidentiality Enables Privacy

Here are some specific ways in which confidentiality underpins privacy:

• Protecting Data in Transit: Confidentiality ensures that data moving across networks is shielded from eavesdropping.
• Safeguarding Data at Rest: Confidential data stored in databases or on servers is encrypted, reducing the risk of breaches.
• Securing Metadata: Protecting metadata, not just message content, helps prevent adversaries from making inferences about user behavior.
• Supporting Regulatory Compliance: Many data protection regulations, such as GDPR, require implementing confidentiality measures to uphold user privacy rights.

Thus, without confidentiality, privacy assurances in digital systems would be practically impossible to enforce.

For more information about protecting sensitive information, see our article on Best Practices for Data Privacy and Protection.

Privacy Beyond Confidentiality

While confidentiality is essential, privacy also involves control, transparency, and choice:

• Control: Users must have the ability to determine what information is shared.
• Transparency: Users need to be informed about how their data is collected, processed, and stored.
• Choice: Users must be able to consent to or opt out of data collection and sharing.

Confidentiality tools mainly focus on restricting access, but true privacy encompasses a broader user-centric approach, ensuring that individuals have agency over their personal data.

Conclusion

Confidentiality plays a foundational role in enabling privacy, especially in cybersecurity and digital communications. However, achieving true privacy requires a comprehensive strategy that includes confidentiality, user empowerment, and transparent data practices.

Building systems with privacy by design principles ensures that both confidentiality and broader privacy rights are respected from the ground up.

Stay tuned for more deep dives into cybersecurity essentials at Bangla Tech Info, where we cover everything from Homomorphic Encryption to Differential Privacy Techniques.