# Data Privacy and Ethical Considerations in Database Management  
1 Department of Informatics, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]:ipv.pt (E.P. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS]:ipv.pt (H.J. )2 Research Center in Digital Services, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (P.X. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (J.S. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.W. )3 Applied Research Institute, Polytechnic of Colimbra, 3045-093 Coimbra, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
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2 Research Center in Digital Services, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]:ipv.pt (H.J. )2 Research Center in Digital Services, Polytechnic of Viseu, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (P.X. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (J.S. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.W. )3 Applied Research Institute, Polytechnic of Colimbra, 3045-093 Coimbra, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
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3 Applied Research Institute, Polytechnic of Colimbra, 3045-093 Coimbra, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.W. )4 Correspondence: pedromromm@etsgv:ipv.pt  
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3 Applied Research Institute, Polytechnic of Colimbra, 3045-093 Coimbra, Portugal; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.  
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) [5]. These regulations were chosen due to their comprehensive nature and wide-ranging impact on data management practices globally. The GDPR, a regulation (not a directive) in EU law, provides a robust framework for data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. HIPAA, on the other hand, offers specific guidelines for protecting sensitive patient health information in the United States. Together, these regulations provide a solid foundation for discussing data privacy and ethical considerations in database management. It is important to note that, throughout this paper, we will use the term \"data subject\" to refer to individuals whose personal data is being processed, aligning with the terminology used in the GDPR. This choice reflects our focus on regulatory compliance and helps in precisely scoping the requirements discussed in this paper. There are regulations such as the aforementioned General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [4] and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) [5] that assist organizations in safeguarding personal data under their jurisdiction, ensuring that organizations are informed and able to react to such an occurrence. In addition, HIPAA and GDPR impact database systems significantly, which affect their architecture, security protocols, and user access controls [6]. Adherence to these regulations requires incorporating features that aid in following their requirements, like fields for consent statuses and attributes related to data classification in database schemas [7]. Given these regulations, access to data is carefully controlled, following the privilege principle to grant access to only authorized users. Security measures have been tightened to protect sensitive data, needing robust encryption methods, intrusion detection systems, and strict access controls. These are some characteristics implemented by these regulations [8]. Database administrators (DBAs) are vital in ensuring stored data security, integrity, and confidentiality. They are essential in ensuring ethically sound data practices within corporate environments. Their principal responsibility lies in implementing robust data security measures to safeguard databases against potential threats posed by unauthorized access and malicious actors [9] while taking into consideration database design, security protocols, and user access permissions to comply with HIPAA and GDPR regulations [10]. A critical ethical consideration in database management is the right of data subjects to request the removal of their data, often referred to as the \"right to be forgotten\" in the GDPR.