Glossary

Privacy terms

41 privacy terms in plain words, and the guides where they matter.

• Accept all cookies Accept all cookies is the button on a website's cookie banner that lets the site, and often its advertising and analytics partners, store small files on your device, including ones that are not needed for the site to work.
• Accepting cookies Accepting cookies means allowing a website to store small text files on your device. Essential cookies make the site work, while optional ones, such as analytics, tell the site owner how you use it.
• Burner email A burner email is a secondary email address you use for sign-ups, one-off forms or sites you don't trust, then stop using or delete, so spam and leaks don't reach your main inbox.
• Burner phone A burner phone is a cheap, prepaid cell phone with no carrier contract, bought to be used for a short time and then thrown away or replaced, so the user can keep their real number and identity private.
• Clear data Clear data means deleting the information your browser or app has saved on your device, such as browsing history, cookies, cached files and autofill entries. It doesn't remove data that websites and companies already hold about you.
• Data controller A data controller is the person or organisation that decides why and how personal data is processed. Under the UK GDPR it carries the main legal responsibility for protecting that data.
• Data minimisation Data minimisation is the GDPR principle that an organisation may collect and keep only personal data that is adequate, relevant and limited to what it needs for its stated purpose, and no more.
• Data ownership Data ownership is the question of who has the right to control a set of data: to decide how it's collected, used, shared and deleted. For personal data, privacy laws usually give people rights over it rather than treating it as property.
• Data privacy Data privacy is your ability to control who collects, uses and shares information about you. NIST describes privacy as freedom from intrusion into your private life that results from undue or illegal gathering and use of data about you.
• Data processor A data processor is a person or organisation that processes personal data on behalf of a data controller, following the controller's instructions rather than deciding for itself why or how the data is used.
• Data processor (GDPR) Data processor (GDPR) means a person or organisation that processes personal data on behalf of a data controller. Under Article 4, the processor follows the controller's purposes and doesn't decide them.
• Data profiling Data profiling, in a privacy sense, is automated processing of personal data to evaluate things about a person, such as their interests, behavior, finances or location, and often to sort them into groups.
• Data Protection Act (DPA 2018) The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK law that sets how organisations may collect, use and store personal data. It works alongside the UK GDPR and gives you rights over your own information.
• Data protection authority (DPA) A data protection authority (DPA) is the independent public body that supervises data protection law in a country. It advises organisations, takes complaints from individuals, investigates and can take enforcement action.
• Data protection law Data protection law is the set of rules that control how organisations collect, use, store and share personal data, and that give people rights over their own information.
• Data protection officer (DPO) A data protection officer (DPO) is the person an organisation designates to monitor its compliance with data protection law, advise it on its obligations and act as the contact point for individuals and the regulator.
• Data protection principles The data protection principles are the seven rules in Article 5 of the UK GDPR that organisations must follow when they handle personal data, from lawfulness and fairness to security and accountability.
• Data scraping Data scraping is the automated collection of information from websites, often in bulk. When the information includes personal details such as names, photos or contact data, privacy and data protection laws can apply.
• Data subject A data subject is the identified or identifiable living person that personal data is about. Under UK GDPR and the EU GDPR, that's you whenever an organization holds information that can be linked to you.
• Data subject access request (DSAR) A data subject access request (DSAR) is a request you make to an organisation to get a copy of the personal data it holds about you. In the UK it's your right of access under UK GDPR, and it's usually free.
• Data transparency Data transparency is an organisation being open about how it handles personal information. NIST describes it as clear, accessible notice of how personal data is collected, used, stored and shared.
• De-identification De-identification is any process that removes the link between a set of identifying data and the person it belongs to, so the data no longer points to a specific individual.
• Deep web The deep web is the part of the internet that search engines do not index and that you normally reach with a login or credentials, such as an online bank account or an internal company system. It is not the same as the dark web.
• Digital fingerprinting Digital fingerprinting is a way of identifying your device by combining many small details, such as screen resolution, installed fonts and browser settings, into a profile that is usually unique to you.
• Doxxing Doxxing is collecting someone's personal details, such as their home address, phone number or workplace, and publishing them online to harass, threaten or humiliate them.
• DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine and browser. By its own account, it doesn't track your searches, and its browser blocks ads, trackers and cookies that collect your data.
• Email alias An email alias is an extra email address that delivers to your real inbox, so you can give out the alias instead of your main address. If it gets spammy or leaked, you can switch it off.
• Email mask An email mask is a unique, random email address that forwards to your real inbox, so you can sign up for apps and sites without giving them your actual address.
• Fair processing (fairness principle) Processing data fairly means handling personal data only in ways people would reasonably expect, without using it in ways that have unjustified harmful effects on them. It is part of the first UK GDPR principle.
• Online footprint An online footprint is the trail of information about you on the internet, including what you post and what websites, apps and data companies collect or publish about you.
• Open register The open register is the version of the UK electoral register that anyone can buy and use, including for marketing. You can opt out of it without affecting your right to vote.
• Passive digital footprint A passive digital footprint is the data collected about you online without you deliberately sharing it, such as your IP address, device details, location and browsing activity.
• Personal information Personal information is any information about an identifiable individual. In Canada's privacy law (PIPEDA) it covers anything that could identify you, alone or combined with other details.
• Personal information removal service A personal information removal service asks data brokers and people-search sites to delete the personal information they hold about you, so your details are harder to find online.
• Private information Private information is anything that can identify you or be traced to you, such as your name, Social Security number, biometric records, date and place of birth, and financial, medical or employment details.
• Social Catfish Social Catfish is a people-search website. Its own opt-out page lets US residents ask it to stop selling their personal information, and says it will delete what it can verify as theirs.
• Telemetry data Telemetry data is information that a device or app measures about itself or its use and sends automatically to a remote system for recording and analysis.
• Third-party cookie A third-party cookie is a cookie set by a domain other than the website you are visiting, usually through embedded content such as ads. It can let the company behind it recognise you on other sites that use the same service.
• Tracker Trackers are bits of code on a website, in an app or on a device that record what you do online, such as the pages you visit, so companies can recognize you and build a profile.
• Web tracker A web tracker is code or a small file on a website or app that records what you do, such as which pages you visit, so advertisers and other companies can recognize you over time.
• Website trackers Website trackers are cookies, pixels and similar technologies that a site places on or reads from your device to recognize you and record what you do, often for advertising or analytics.

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