As builders of software we like to talk about user-centered design. We put ourselves in the mindset of the person using our app, service, or product. Successful user-driven companies bake this process into every part of their software lifecycle. It doesn’t stop at the initial research. Every decision is paired with the question: What about the user? The same approach can be taken when building with privacy in mind. The notion of Privacy By Design (PbD) does that.

At Snyk, we strongly believe in empowering developers to take ownership of security. Developers are the builders of today and ultimately hold the keys to successfully securing their code. Only a developer-first approach, one that combines developer-friendly tooling together with guidance by security, can help organizations traverse the path to better-secured applications.

Mapping and cataloging personal information collected from users is time-consuming. It is error-prone, and relies on hunting down information from multiple departments. For many teams, creating an accurate data flow map will be the hardest part of completing GDPR Article 35's data privacy impact assessment (DPIA) or any privacy impact assessment (PIA). Even for smaller businesses with limited departments and fewer software offerings, determining how data exists and how it moves can be a challenge.

Organizations are increasingly turning to Kubernetes to manage their containers. As reported by Container Journal, 48% of respondents to a 2020 survey said that their organizations were using the platform. That’s up from 27% two years prior. These organizations could be turning to Kubernetes for the many benefits it affords them.

In the fall of 2020, voters in California approved the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Touted as California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) 2.0, the CPRA is more an addendum and expansion of CCPA rather than an entirely new law. Think of it as an update that fixes unclear parts of the previous law and adds new systems to better handle the existence of the law itself. As there are a few “breaking changes”, the 2.0 moniker is pretty apt for those in the software world.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set a huge precedent in modern digital privacy regulation. We've seen regions throughout the world adopt similar data protection laws in the time since its inception, and the financial liabilities are only part of the story. Customers and users of software products are now savvier than ever when it comes to understanding the importance of data privacy rights.

One unexpected consequence of the global pandemic is the acceleration of digital transformation across organizations of all sizes. With so many employees working from home, organizations realized they needed to upgrade to a cloud infrastructure to support everyone working remotely. As applications moved from on-premises to the cloud to support these new remote users, organizations needed to think about the APIs and microservices that connected users to essential applications.

In order to ensure compliance with the growing list of personal privacy regulations—like GDPR, CCPA, and PDPA—your company needs to know how it handles the personal information of your customers, users, and even visitors.

Modern privacy regulation is centered around the concept of personal information. The General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) popularized it, but since then similar initiatives—like the California Consumer Privacy Act—have expanded on the definition of "Personal Information." If your application collects any kind of information about your users or customers, it is important that you track when, how, and for what purpose you are collecting their data.

In this app-driven world, APIs are the infrastructure providing highways for ensuring smoother transport of sensitive data. Insecure APIs add to top security risks faced by web applications and act as an easy invite for hackers. Just because APIs deal with data at the backend does not mean they are hidden from the plain view and are safe. This article provides you an API security checklist that can be used as a basic benchmark before the release.