My data stay at home with me. 6 tips from Sloweb
1. Referring to cybersecurity, in our Sloweb courses we tell students: we are the best antivirus. Ironically, during these CV19 days this stands for every other choice we also make. Today is a time of incredible opportunities: after so long — how long? — we can feel that our individual behaviors can either generate damage or result in a large collective benefit.
2. Information as input: what to see, what to collect, how much to see? We must select content that helps us keeping our minds open to new ideas. We should try to watch the news one or two times a day, fighting the infodemia and the spread of news for the sake of generating anxiety. Let’s consider instead building our own ecology to protect ourselves from anxiety.
3. Information as output — what to share? One of the worst habits we have started lately is compulsive sharing: before / instead of reading something, we consider who can I send it to, fight away? I do not explain why / how I send you something, I just throw bites at you like stones, wasting your time, wasting your attention. In Sloweb we call these bullets “naked links”, and we recommend avoiding this practice. Which is not easy, believe me!
4. In these days when parents are at home, take advantage of understanding where do the children play (Cat Stevens) and what are they doing on the web. In our opinion, it is much more effective to do something together on the web than to try to repress without knowing.
Teachers and pupils should remember that if they use Google, the children’s data is NOT protected. As emergency solutions these system might be fine, but beware of the fact that these systems are NOT free: our privacy is the price we pay. Our data should be with us. My data stay at home. Should we not demand that democracies and State systems compete against — and win over — private systems?
5. Pay attention to your stress and that of others. Notifications, noises, vibrations; use the web, don’t get used. Do not get infected with nomophobia and other diseases induced by the abuse of new technologies.
Use social networks (only) to laugh. Satire kills more than an antibiotic! Social media can help us smile, and it is important especially today. But other than that? Take precautions, read their contracts, the instructions for the use…
6. Use time at home to clean and declutter. Delete unnecessary contacts and addresses, photographs, content, emails that are not needed. Reduce above all our registrations on accounts to which we have left our credentials, write your wishes, leave a mark, today, that we have time to think about it. Let’s reduce our digital footprint, so we can prepare our digital heritage. For greater safety, for greater savings, for next generations.
