Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

We’re the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an independent non-profit working to protect online privacy for nearly thirty years. This is Surveillance Self-Defense : our expert guide to protecting you and your friends from online spying.

Read the BASICS to find out how online surveillance works. Dive into our TOOL GUIDES for instructions to installing our pick of the best, most secure applications. We have more detailed information in our FURTHER LEARNING sections. If you’d like a guided tour, look for our list of common SECURITY SCENARIOS.

The web provides limitless opportunities for learning, creating, sharing, and exploring the depths of human knowledge. But it is also an unsafe arena where one needs to be equipped with the needed tools and know-how to better stay safe and browse the net securely. As parents and teachers, we need to teach our students about the basics of staying safe online and luckily there are several resources to help you do that. Google Safety Centre is one of the best of them.

At the American Civil Liberties Union, privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian (TED Talk: How to avoid surveillance … with the phone in your pocket) spends much of his time thinking about how individuals can protect themselves from spying. Last year, he recorded a Facebook Live conversation with his fellow TED Fellow, Will Potter (TED Talk: The secret US prisons you’ve never heard of before) — an investigative reporter who specializes in covering dissident politics and culture. Read on for their tips about how to protect your online privacy and security:

In today’s post we are sharing with you four oldei but goodie YouTube videos to help you  teach your students how to navigate the web smartly. As good digital citizens, students need to be educated on the fundamentals behind a responsible and effective use of the Internet. This includes knowledge of how to avoid falling prey to online scams (phishing, identity theft, fraud, etc) and how to act in case they happen; how to appropriately use online content; what or what not to share publicly;  how to protect private information (e.g, home address, phone number, email etc); and how to act in an ethical, responsible and positive way online (and of course offline). Critical literacy is key in the teaching of digital citizenship. It equips students with a critical mindset capable of investigating, scrutinizing, and analyzing digital content from different perspectives. In this context, the videos we have for you today are important contribution to your efforts to raise digitally cognizant students.

Computer scientist explains online privacy issues and how to work with communities, especially the underrepresented, to serve their needs.