Lesson 1: The Public You vs. The Private You

Lesson covers online privacy, corporate surveillance, online monitoring, how to use the Internet securely, personal data

If you’re taking this course, your online privacy matters to you. That said, you probably don’t mind having some information about you made public (your birthday: who doesn’t love a Facebook message once a year from 97 random friends you don’t talk to any other time?), but there are other things that you would prefer to keep to yourself.

It’s our job to help you so when you want to operate in public you can, and when you want to operate privately you can do that, too.

But I don’t have anything to hide! Why would I want to operate privately?

Fair question! Here’s why.

Let’s say that you’re planning a holiday to a nearby ski resort and you want to know what the snow conditions are. When you jump on Google and search “Snow conditions at Big Bear”, you are broadcasting information to Google that can be used to market to you: your location and your intended activity (skiing). But by searching online, you are signaling a lot more than just your search query. Your search data can help an algorithm profile you, as this particular search will generally belong to someone from a certain geographical location, with a certain socio-economic background, who likely has an interest in skiing or snowboarding. Combine this information with the metadata from your many other searches and a picture starts to emerge of who you are and what your intentions and interests might be.

Consider the following search: “Pain on the left side of my chest”. Your insurance company, for example, would be interested in knowing that you searched for this.

Searches on other health or medical conditions, financial issues, or relationship status might also be of interest to other parties, which is why it is so important to understand how the use of Google & Co’s search, maps, social media or instant message products can have serious privacy implications for users.

So What’s the Best Choice?

Ultimately, it’s up to you to make informed decisions about what tools you wish to use for specific tasks. It may be in your interest to have a public profile for searches and activities you don’t mind the world knowing about, and a private profile for the things you’d prefer to keep to yourself.

After learning the privacy tools in modules 3-8, you’ll have step-by-step instructions on how to send messages, search browsers and deal with email—all privately. Yet even with that new information, you may choose to search for some things in Google and other things in a tool like Tor Browser, email some people in Gmail and others using Proton Mail, message some contacts in WhatsApp and others in Signal Messenger. Some searches are benign, while others can have implications. Our advice is to be aware of the tool that you are using for each query or requirement. Ultimately, it will be up to you. We advocate for discretion, not blind faith.

We want to give you the power of “opt-in privacy”: just knowing you have a choice is powerful in itself.