Security and Privacy: Why They’re Not the Same

Key Takeaways:

• Different Goals: Security protects access. Privacy ensures responsible data use.
• Tech Isn’t Enough: Tools miss risks when teams ignore consent or policy gaps.
• Silos Create Risk: Misaligned teams lead to compliance failures and confusion.
• Rising Expectations: Laws and customers demand stronger data protection.
• Leadership Matters: Clear direction aligns teams and prevents costly mistakes.

When Teams Confuse Security and Privacy, Trouble Follows

A healthcare company had a solid IT team. Their firewalls were up to date, patient data was encrypted, and access was tightly controlled. Still, they ended up in the news. A staff member accessed a celebrity’s health record out of curiosity. No breach. No hack. But a clear violation of privacy.

They had the technical controls in place, but not the cultural or procedural ones. That’s what happens when teams assume security is enough to manage privacy risks.

Security and privacy work together, but they serve different goals. One protects access. The other ensures data is used responsibly. If your team only understands one, the business is still at risk.

Keep reading to understand why this distinction matters and how to help your security and privacy teams work better together.

Why Everyone Confuses Security with Privacy

Most teams want to do the right thing. However, confusion about security and privacy can lead to big problems. Clearing up common myths helps teams understand the difference between protecting access and ensuring responsible data use. If your team relies on one without the other, you're missing a critical piece.

Security and privacy often get confused because different teams with different priorities manage them. Security focuses on threats and uptime. Privacy is rooted in regulation, ethics, and individual rights. When teams treat them as interchangeable, they overlook critical gaps no single tool can fix.81% of U.S. adults are concerned about how companies use the data they collect about them. (Pew Research Center)

How Their Responsibilities Differ:

Security

• Prevents unauthorized access, theft, or destruction of data
• Maintains system integrity and availability
• Focuses on external threats and technical defenses

Privacy

• Governs how data is collected, shared, and used
• Ensures compliance with laws like GDPR and HIPAA
• Focuses on individual rights, consent, and transparency

When teams don't recognize this, they rely on tools that cannot address more complex compliance and ethical issues. Understanding who handles what is the first step to closing that gap.

Who Handles What in Security and Privacy

Security and privacy teams often work separately, reporting to different leaders, using different tools, and responding to different threats. That disconnect makes collaboration harder than it should be, and the confusion shows up quickly when something goes wrong.

In practice, these responsibilities play out differently.

Security teams typically:

• Manage firewalls and endpoint protection
• Control access to systems and data
• Monitor for breaches, malware, and insider threats
• Ensure system integrity and uptime

Privacy teams typically:

• Create and enforce data use and retention policies
• Review consent practices and user notifications
• Ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA
• Handle requests for data access, correction, or deletion

Both are essential. But when roles aren’t clearly defined, teams can unintentionally create risk instead of reducing it.

For example, a security team may tightly control access to sensitive data. But if no one checks whether that access complies with privacy requirements, a breach isn’t necessary for a violation. Or a privacy team might draft strong policies on consent but never know whether the technical settings enforce them.

Teams that take time to map shared responsibilities, define ownership, and coordinate across departments build better alignment. This clarity helps them avoid the gaps that create audit findings, internal conflicts, or public mistakes.

Real-World Security and Privacy Mistakes

Teams can follow strong security practices and still fail at privacy. These side-by-side examples show how that happens and what it looks like when one side is covered but the other is not.

HR

Department	Security Focus	Privacy Violation
Marketing	Data stored in secure CRM	Sends emails to users who opted out
Employee files encrypted	Shares reviews without employee consent
IT	Patient data encrypted	Staff views VIP file without cause
Finance	Strong access control in place	Stores customer card data too long
App Dev	GPS data stored securely	Saved in plaintext without opt-in

These examples show a common issue: strong security doesn’t guarantee strong privacy. A team may encrypt data and control access, but without checking for consent or retention, serious risks remain.

That was the case for one regional retailer. After forming a joint task force between security and privacy, they discovered a marketing tool was collecting location data without consent. They removed the tool, updated permissions, and passed their GDPR audit with no issues.

As privacy laws tighten and enforcement becomes more aggressive, this kind of proactive alignment is becoming essential.

Why Privacy Laws Bring More Pressure Than Security

Privacy violations may not always make headlines, but they often carry more weight in court than security breaches. That’s because privacy laws go beyond keeping data safe. They focus on how data is used, whether it’s ethical, and if individuals’ rights are respected.

Legal frameworks have made privacy a distinct responsibility, with expectations that go far beyond technical defenses. Unlike security, which targets external threats, privacy law focuses on how personal data is collected, used, and protected.

Meeting these legal and ethical obligations is essential for maintaining trust. Teams need to understand what regulators expect and how these requirements map to internal practices.

95% of organizations say their customers would not buy from them if they did not protect data properly. (Cisco)

What Privacy Laws Expect:

• Be transparent about how data is collected and used
• Limit use to specific, declared purposes
• Respect user rights such as access, correction, and deletion
• Handle consent with clarity and accountability

Yet privacy responsibilities often fall to legal or compliance teams that aren’t fully looped into day-to-day data operations. That disconnect leads to costly gaps. CISOs may assume encryption is enough, while privacy officers believe someone else set access limits.

And as technology evolves faster than policies do, those risks multiply, especially when AI, cloud tools, or connected devices enter the picture.

How AI, IoT, and the Cloud Complicate Security and Privacy

Modern tools bring modern problems. As teams adopt AI, IoT, and cloud platforms, they need to be even more deliberate about managing security and privacy together. These technologies generate more data across more systems, increasing the risk and complexity.

• AI models can be trained on sensitive personal data without proper consent or oversight.
• IoT devices often lack strong security, even though they collect detailed behavioral data.
• Cloud platforms introduce shared responsibility, blurring ownership of security and privacy controls.

New technologies don’t replace the need for strong security or sound privacy practices. They raise the bar. Security teams need broader reach. Privacy teams need better oversight. And compliance teams need visibility into how sensitive data is handled across tools.

That shared understanding only happens when these teams stop working in isolation and start planning together.

How to Get Security and Privacy Teams on the Same Page

Security and privacy teams often work in silos, but the real strength comes when they align. Cross-functional collaboration, shared policies, and combined budgets help close gaps and build trust across departments. 62% of business leaders say their organization should be doing more to strengthen existing data-protection measures. (KPMG).

Strong collaboration between security and privacy does not happen by accident. It takes leaders who actively support cross-functional work, align incentives, and set expectations from the top. When that happens, both teams move faster, stay focused, and avoid costly confusion.

What Strong Leadership Looks Like:

• Encourages collaboration instead of competition
• Sets shared goals across security and privacy
• Funds joint initiatives with time and resources
• Reinforces trust and accountability at every level

When privacy and security teams are aligned:

• Audit findings go down
• Remediation speed goes up
• Employees stop asking “Who owns this?” during incidents

For compliance leads, IT managers, and risk officers, that clarity is the difference between a contained issue and a full-blown crisis. To keep that alignment strong, teams need practical tools that reinforce ownership, clarify workflows, and catch gaps early.

Security and Privacy Tools Your Team Can Use Right Now

Practical tools help teams respond more quickly and avoid confusion when things go wrong. They take the guesswork out of who should respond, when to involve legal, or whether a vendor meets your standards. They also help teams stay consistent and accountable.

Without shared checklists or review processes, it’s easy to miss security in a privacy-focused policy or overlook privacy during a security-driven decision. A breach response led only by IT. A vendor approved without a security review. A policy update that skips over consent requirements. These small gaps are where big problems start.

Simple checklists and policy reviews catch issues early before they escalate. Even the best tools require clear ownership and human judgment. They give structure to the processes that protect your data and your users, but they cannot replace informed decisions.

Security and Privacy: It All Comes Down to Team Skills

Confusing security with privacy isn’t just a technical issue. It’s a team issue. Strong processes and tools only work when people know how to use them. Security protects access. Privacy ensures data is used responsibly. Your team needs to understand both to protect your organization, meet legal obligations, and maintain trust.

Most teams fall short because they were never trained to see the difference. That’s where the fix starts.

At New Horizons, we train teams to spot the gaps before they become problems.

From firewall skills to breach response and data handling, our cybersecurity courses help teams apply what they learn right away. Whether you're starting with the basics or working toward certification, our programs support real-world success.

Give your team the cybersecurity skills to protect what matters. Explore hands-on training from New Horizons to help your team close the gap between security and privacy before it costs you.