- We've all got secrets, and things we don't want people to know about. Especially when it comes to those embarrassing searches we do online. But how do we keep this stuff private when it seems like the internet knows our every move? We are constantly warned about how we need to protect our privacy online. You've probably heard about how colleges and future employers can check your social media to determine if they'll admit or hire you. Like, last year, Harvard revoked 10 students' admissions because of offensive stuff they put on Facebook. And according to a 2017 Career Builder survey, 70% of employers check candidates' social media feeds. And then there's the stuff in the news about how companies track our every move online, or how government agencies like the National Security Administration could be monitoring our online activities. Now, everybody's level of comfort with surveillance is gonna be different. And maybe you're taking some precautions. You know, only sharing those awesome selfies and not so much pictures from that party that got out of hand. Or maybe you've got some of your accounts set to private. But how do we know if what we're doing is enough? What can we do to protect our privacy online? To answer this question, we asked the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Or the EFF as the cool kids like to call them. They're a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to defending civil liberties online. As you can tell, they take privacy really seriously. But we sweet talked these two into talking to us on camera. And they said protecting yourself online isn't one size fits all. So they recommend something called threat modeling. The prospect of trying to protect everything from everybody all the time seems really frightening, and could possibly drive you crazy. So threat modeling is the way that we break this problem down into bite size pieces so that you're only protecting the stuff that's really important from the people who you really want to protect it from. Threat modeling consists of five questions you should ask yourself. One, what do you want to protect? Who do you want to protect it from? How likely is it that you will need to protect it? How bad are the consequences if you fail? And how much trouble are you willing to go through in order to avoid those consequences? So everyone's threat model will be unique, but here are five things you might want to consider when thinking about your own threat model. First, let's talk about passwords. Eva says one of the most common issues is people feeling pressured to give their passwords to their significant others. One of the best things you can do, and usually we give people all kinds of advice about how they can protect themselves online, but not giving the stuff away in the first place is probably the most important thing. Okay, seriously guys. Don't ask for people's passwords. Like, come on now. But Eva recommends having a couple of answers ready on the fly just in case you do get this kind of pressure. Like, I'd say something like, Are you crazy? I'm not about to give you my password. Or maybe you want to say something like, No can do. I've got two-factor authenticator setup. And when it comes to choosing passwords, forget about changing the E's to threes or the S's to dollar signs, or loading up on exclamation marks. Those aren't really making your passwords any more secure. So that means I have to go home and change a bunch of my passwords. Creating a string of random words for a password, now that's a better option. Something like chicken firetruck igloo elephant. I don't know, whatever floats your boat. Longer passwords are harder for computers to hack. Next, you've got online trackers. What we find is that various websites on the internet have hidden code that's placed in your browser files to see which websites you're accessing, what you're doing on there, and essentially using that to create a profile on you. And this information can be used by data brokers, which are companies that collect a whole bunch of info on you and then sell it to other companies. It's mainly used to target ads, but it's pretty unregulated. Like, what's stopping a data broker from selling your info to scammers or other dangerous folks? Check out some free tools that block these trackers in the description below. And this brings us to our next topic. Surveillance at schools. With school issued devices like iPads and Chromebooks, schools can monitor what you're doing online. Like what websites you're going to, and what you're posting on social media. They're often looking for things like cyber bullying, suicide warnings, and inappropriate behavior to protect students' safety. But the EFF warns that this monitoring can have big implications for student privacy too. This is particularly problematic because we are teaching students from an early age that it's okay to be part of the surveillance culture, when it's not. We should not have this expectation of school districts and administrators being able to look over everything that we're doing. General rule of thumb? If you don't want you school to see something, like private emails or private searches, then don't do it on a school-issued device or school email. And it's not just schools that are collecting this information on students. Tech companies are doing it too. Take Chromebooks, for example. What we find a lot of the time what school districts are doing, they are just shipping these devices and making students use them with the default settings, which tend to permit a lot of data to be collected by Google. This can include stuff you have on your Google Drive, your Google Docs, your Gmail, and your search history. And if you're logged into your Google suite for education while you're on YouTube, they can track what you're watching too. One of the things that we recommend students to do is to be proactive in their privacy. If you're uncomfortable with anything, speak up to your parents and teachers. And don't be afraid to demand an opt-out option, or for your school to adopt better privacy policies. Okay, next up, encryption. If you're concerned about sharing private information or photos through texting, one thing you might want to consider is using end-to-end encryption. Encryption basically scrambles your messages so that only the person you send the message to can see it. This is important if you don't trust the platform that you're using. For example, iMessage is end to end encrypted if you are sending iMessages to other people with iPhones. So, you can see the message and the person you're sending the message to can see the message, but Apple doesn't know what the message is. Signal and WhatsApp are both messaging apps that use end to end encryption. And when you're on a website, check the URL for the letters https. The s stands for secure. These sites are encrypted, which means a hacker can see you're on a particular website, but they can't see what you're doing on it, like buying that fungal cream for that armpit rash that won't go away. And this brings us to our last point, open Wi-Fi networks. Usually places that provide free Wi-Fi like libraries, cafes, schools, and hotels track your activity. Also, anyone on the same Wi-Fi network can use tools to see what you're doing if what you're doing is not encrypted. One option to protect yourself from this kind of snooping, is that you can use VPN, aka a virtual private network. But be leery of free or really cheap ones because they can track you too. Okay, that concludes our quick primer on online privacy. Obviously we can't cover everything, and we really only just scratched the surface. But hopefully you learned something new, and can start thinking about your own threat models. And don't forget to check out the links in the description below for more info. But before you go, we're curious. What are you most concerned about when it comes to your online privacy? Let us know in the comments below. Oh, and speaking of things you wanna keep private, you should check out our video on if teen sexting should be considered a crime. You might also be interested in this video about algorithms in our criminal justice system. Thanks for watching guys, and don't forget to like and subscribe. All right, that's all I got.