On January 26, New York Governor, Kathy Hochul, issued a proclamation establishing January 21-27, 2024, as Data Privacy Awareness Week in partnership with several state agencies, including NYDFS. Generally celebrated as a Data Privacy Day, this will be the first time that the event expands to an entire week. This proclamation addresses ways that citizens can protect their personal information against bad actors. The week is designed to help “educate the public” and heighten the importance of data privacy. The press release highlights how consumers can keep their personal information private and protect themselves, including: keeping applications up to date; using unique and complex passwords for every account; enabling multi-factor authentication on devices; exercising caution when opening unsolicited links in emails or messages; limiting the amount of personal data collected by websites; considering what personal information is shared on social media; setting up a virtual private network, or VPN; and being careful when using public wi-fi networks.