Video: Confidentiality vs. Privacy

In this lesson, Nick Palazzolo, CPA, clarifies the often-confused concepts of confidentiality and privacy, detailing their distinct meanings and applications, particularly in the context of security and data protection. He starts by defining confidentiality as the safeguarding of sensitive information to ensure it's accessible only to authorized individuals, using examples from healthcare and business to illustrate how breaches can occur and the protective measures typically employed. Nick then contrasts this with privacy, which he describes as the individual's right to control access to their personal information. He provides insights into how privacy regulations like the GDPR empower individuals in the EU, emphasizing the broader scope of privacy compared to confidentiality. Throughout the lesson, Nick underscores the legal and ethical frameworks that support both concepts, helping to distinguish between their applications in various professional and personal contexts.

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Video Transcript

Instructor: Nick Palazzolo

Nick Palazzolo is head instructor of ExamPrep.ai CPA Review. Nick's teaching style is engaging & upbeat, combining practical Big 4 tax & assurance expertise with years of 1-on-1 coaching. His lessons are concise and emphasize what you need to know to pass. Whether you're a recent grad or working full-time, we’re confident you can conquer your CPA exams with Nick’s review.

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All right, now let's talk about the differences between these two concepts in our title here, confidentiality versus privacy. There are two concepts that are often used interchangeably. We see this a lot throughout our lessons. We've got two concepts that are very similar to each other, but they have slight differences. And these two also have distinct meanings, especially in the context of security and data protection. So confidentiality, we'll go through that first, then privacy, and then just kind of boil down the main differences. This refers to the protection of information from being accessed by unauthorized parties. It's about ensuring that sensitive information is accessible only to those who have unauthorized access, not unauthorized, authorized access. Now the focus here is on protecting from information from unauthorized disclosure. It applies to how data is shared and transmitted. So for example, in a healthcare setting, patient records are often kept confidential, meaning that only authorized medical staff can access them. In business, confidentiality agreements protect sensitive company information from being disclosed to competitors. And a breach of confidentiality occurs when that protected information is accessed or disclosed without proper authorization. Privacy, on the other hand, pertains to an individual's right to control access to their personal information and personal space. It's about the right to be left alone and to control one's personal information. So immediately we're seeing the differences here. The focus here is that privacy is concerned with the rights of individuals regarding their information. It encompasses how personal information is collected, used, and stored. Now, some examples here, an individual's choice to not have their personal data like home address or phone number shared publicly. We do have regulations like we saw back in our frameworks and regulations lesson, the GDPR in the EU, which

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Confidentiality, Privacy, & Incident Response

Module: 2 Concepts, 20 Videos

Confidentiality and Privacy - Overview

0:52

Introduction to Confidentiality and Privacy

2:24

Fundamentals of Encryption

3:29

Confidentiality vs. Privacy