Data Privacy Day 2027 is on Thursday

About Data Privacy Day

The day is a prompt to think about the trail of personal information that phones, apps, websites, cars and smart devices create, and about who gets to collect, share or sell it. Regulators, schools, libraries, employers and security groups use it to explain privacy rights, show people how to adjust their settings and remind organizations that handling data responsibly is part of earning trust.

The date comes from Europe. On January 28, 1981, the Council of Europe opened its Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, known as Convention 108, for signature. It was the first binding international treaty on data protection. In 2006 the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers chose the anniversary as Data Protection Day, and the first one was held in 2007. The Council of Europe notes that outside Europe the same day is usually called Privacy Day.

In the United States, the House of Representatives passed H.Res. 31 on January 26, 2009, by a vote of 402 to 0, supporting the designation of January 28, 2009, as National Data Privacy Day, and the Senate agreed to a matching resolution, S.Res. 25, on the day itself. Those resolutions were nonbinding and do not make it a federal holiday. Today the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a US nonprofit, leads a Data Privacy Week campaign around the date (January 26 to 30 in 2026), while data protection authorities in Europe and elsewhere hold their own events.

Sources: Council of Europe: Data Protection Day (archived), GovInfo: H.Res. 31, 111th Congress, as passed by the House (2009), Office of the Clerk, US House: Roll Call 30 (2009), GovInfo: S.Res. 25, 111th Congress (2009), National Cybersecurity Alliance: Data Privacy Week. How we check dates.

How to mark Data Privacy Day

• Open the privacy settings on your phone and review which apps can see your location, contacts, camera and microphone.
• Delete apps and online accounts you no longer use, so they stop collecting data about you.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication for your email and banking accounts, and use a password manager for unique passwords.
• Look up the data rights in your country or state, such as the right to see or delete what a company holds about you, and try making one request.
• Talk with children or older relatives about what is safe to share online and how to spot scam messages asking for personal details.
• If you run a team or small business, review what customer data you keep and delete what you no longer need.

Data Privacy Day dates