Welcome to the DigiSafe Newsletter #2! In this edition, you'll find guidance on how to lock down your social media accounts, a privacy-friendly alternative to the Google Search juggernaut, and advice on what to do when your phone asks you to update your operating system.
đź“° In the news
U.S. announced it will monitor immigrants' social media
Last week, the U.S. government announced it will be screening the social media activity of immigrants and foreign students, supposedly to look for signs of “antisemitic activity” and deny or revoke immigration benefits, including permanent residency. This comes from an administration known for its antisemitism and alongside an expansive definition of antisemitism that can be used to target any opponents to the Trump administration.
Even if you're not currently targeted because of your immigration status or political work, the announcement shows how easy it is for any government to monitor everything we post, like, and comment on social media. The US government is almost certainly monitoring far more than "antisemitic activity"
In the face of social media surveillance, there are a few important things you can do to protect your privacy:
- Remove any personal information that can connect your social media accounts to your real life identity
- Review your privacy settings to hide sensitive information like your list of friends and the photos you're tagged on
- Consider your activity on social media to be public – don't post, like, or comment anything wouldn't want to be known publicly!
If you want to go further, we’ve put together a guide with a list of practical steps to help you lock down your social media accounts ⬇
đź’Ş One quick privacy win
Install iOS or Android updates as soon as they become available
Whether we're on iPhone or Android, we all experience it: the internal eye roll when our phone's operating system tells us there is an update we need to install. And many of us go on to postpone the update for as long as humanely possible.
But while the frustration with software update is quasi-universal, so is the value of getting those updates installed as quickly as possible. With each update, Android and iOS give us access to new features, even if we often feel like we don't want or need themse new features. But each update also brings something less visible and far more important: security 'patches'. Like a real-life patch covers a hole or tear in fabric, a security patch in software aims to fill a hole in the software: it fixes a weakness in the software, called a 'vulnerability'. These vulnerabilities let attackers – hackers, scammers, and cybercriminals – gain access to parts of your phone or to apps to steal your data or track your activity.
So when Android or iOS notifies you of an update: don't dismiss it or postpone installing it; install it as it becomes available. It will take just a few minutes and will make a big difference in keeping you and your data safe.
🛠️ One tool we like
DuckDuckGo, a privacy-preserving search engine
Few things reveal more about who we are, what we're interested in, and what kind of activities we engage in than our search history. Our search engine is often where we start shopping for a new product, where we look up information about a topic we're curious about, or where we seek health services – among thousand of other personal queries. And for 90% of the world, this search engine is Google.
But Google's entire business model is based on tracking us: it stores every single search we make so it can target us with ads. Having access to every single search we make, every single day, for years and years – that's a lot of information about us! And as always, if this data exists, there is a risk that it is misused (sold to other companies without our consent, handed over to a government) or leaked (and falls into the hands of potential attackers).
Luckily, there are search engines that simply don't collect any of this data! One of them is DuckDuckGo: a simple search engine that does what you expect from a search engine (finding the websites or information you're looking for), but does so while respecting your privacy. DuckDuckGo simply doesn't save our searches. If it doesn't have our search history, it can't misuse it or accidentally leak it.
Try it out here, and if you like it, update your default search engines in your web browsers!
We Want to Hear From You!
If you found this newsletter helpful, please forward it to people in your life who could use a little privacy boost.
And let us know what you think simply by replying to this email – we read every reply!
