Data Mining and Privacy Issues

The era of IT and IT enabled services has brought a revolution in the present day life which revolves around the data, its use and the interpretation as per the need of the users. Apart from focusing on issues related to efficient and secure data storage, effective and secure data retrieval is the key area now a days. Privacy is the buzzword these days in all the companies handling and providing data to one and all. The customers have now noticed that it is their right to determine which personal information about him or the organization is to be made available to others. The customers want to be secure from unauthorized disclosure of information about oneself or the organization. This paper is emphasizing on hammering on the question that Can data privacy and data mining coexist? The aim is to explore how exactly data mining can be a threat to privacy, and what type of legislative and technical steps should be taken to make sure that data mining and data privacy go together a long way.