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Importance of data security

Data security is crucial to protect your private information, like your name and social security number, from being misused. People may try to steal your identity, money, or control your online presence. To prevent this, you'll need to be vigilant and use technology like encryption and authentication. Created by Sal Khan.

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Video transcript

- I'm going to make a bold prediction. You probably don't like people stealing your identity which allows them to steal your money. Or maybe tell the whole universe what you're up to and being able to track you and your family, and compromise your security. These don't feel like good things. And so, if that is true of you, it's true of me. I don't like any of those things. I wanna keep my private information private, then you should care about data security. And that's what we're going to do in this unit. You're gonna learn a lot about personally identifiable information. Your name is one example, but also things like your social security number, or things that are indirectly, personally identifiable like your address, or your phone number, why that's important. And then we're going to learn the ways that people are going to try to get ahold of it, and why they want to get ahold of it. Because they might wanna misrepresent you, or or publish things about you on the Internet, or control your presence on the internet, or steal money from you or from others that you care about. And then we're going to learn about ways to protect from those. A lot of that's going to be behavior change on your part to be a little bit more vigilant, but also technology ways of keeping your data secret, encrypting your data, authentication, making sure that the person who says they are who they are, are actually them. So enjoy this unit on data security. It isn't just interesting, which it is. It could save you a lot of money, a lot of pain, and a lot of embarrassment.