Teaching Practical Privacy: Notes from a Librarian
Civics of Technology Announcements
Privacy Week Webinars: January 29 - see our Privacy page to learn more and register!
New Book Club: Critical AI in K-12 Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Cultivating Justice and Joy by Stephanie Smith Budhai and Marie Heath on Wednesday, March 4th at 8pm EST. Buy the book here and register for book club here.
New Technology Audit Curriculum: This activity provides a structured way to surface the ethical dimensions of technology tools. Drawing on four analytic approaches developed through the Civics of Technology project, educators and students can ask disciplined, critical questions that move beyond whether a tool “works” to whether it aligns with their educational values and responsibilities. An audit supports informed judgment about whether to adopt a technology as designed, modify its settings or uses, or reject it altogether. Importantly, this process also positions teachers and students as civic actors who can advocate for more responsible technology practices within classrooms, schools, districts, and communities.
Next Tech Talk: Please join us for our next Tech Talk where we meet to discuss whatever critical tech issues are on people’s minds. It’s a great way to connect, learn from colleagues, and get energized. Our next Tech Talk will be held on Wednesday, February 4th at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Register here or visit our Events page.
By Eliza Bettinger, Director of Digital Scholarship Services Cornell University Library
Advice about digital security and digital privacy can be overwhelming! You might have heard of VPNs, adblockers, Telegram and Signal, anti-virus software, password managers, or various tips that seem to contradict each other or seem entirely unmanageable. But how do you prioritize? How do you stop yourself from throwing up your hands in frustration?
I am an academic librarian who teaches workshops on digital privacy and security, and consults with individuals about their specific situations. In each workshop, we might cover different tools and tactics, but more than any particular tool or tip, I want participants to walk away with a few key concepts for evaluating privacy strategy, and making sense of the noise. Here they are:
What constitutes “good” privacy advice really depends on your situation. What are the risks you’re most concerned about? Politically motivated harassment? An abusive former intimate partner? Protecting your sources as a journalist or researcher? Companies that track your behavior and create detailed profiles about you for sale?
These situations call for somewhat different security strategies. Anytime you hear advice that (1) everyone online must do this or that one thing in order to be private, or (2) that a particular tool is all good or all bad, that’s a cue to be skeptical. Good privacy strategy is situational and subjective. There is no silver bullet that “fixes” privacy.
Understanding a bit about how the Internet works – and the economic and legal realities that govern it -- can help. For every tool or strategy my colleagues and I introduce, we try to contextualize it to explain what kinds of threats it guards against, how, and why. That way, participants can make more educated decisions about whether that strategy is important to them, and they can better judge other tools and strategies they encounter later.
Every. Step. Helps. Let’s say you have identified your security priorities, and decided what makes the most sense for you. You still might be overwhelmed by all the work to do! Don’t worry. Each step you take will increase your safety even if you can’t do everything at once. Maybe one month, you remove your personal information from 15 data broker sites, and the next month, you do 15 more. Congrats! You’re safer than when you started. Keep plugging away. Don’t fall for the myth that not doing everything is the same as doing nothing.
Ultimately, solving digital privacy is a collective problem, not a personal one. I teach strategies for individuals to lessen their personal risk, and that is important harm-reduction work. But ultimately, creating a better, safer Internet depends on collective solutions: stronger regulation of corporations and governments, and bold, thoughtful policies in institutions. These goals require banding together as professional organizations, unions, and advocacy groups to fight to protect core values of humanity, like privacy, freedom, and creativity.
Want to learn some practical strategies for protecting your privacy against particular threats, and discover resources for learning more? My colleague Reanna Esmail and I will lead a general privacy workshop on Thursday, January 29 at 6pm ET. Looking forward to seeing you there and hearing all your questions!