At the start of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) which was about 80+ days ago, I had already included privacy as one of the webinar topics that should be delivered to the entire university. Privacy can be a very basic technical topic but it is usually the most ignored and disregarded one by many people. Here are then my listing of privacy tips though some were already mentioned on my previous post about working from home:

  1. Think before you click or tap.
  2. Avoid sharing Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) versions of webpages or news portals.
  3. Check the privacy settings of your computing devices.
  4. For those who are using Zoom, you can check out this page: https://tidbits.com/2020/04/03/every-zoom-security-and-privacy-flaw-so-far-and-what-you-can-do-to-protect-yourself/ and learn how to protect yourself.
  5. Prevent cross-site tracking on web browsers.
  6. Perform password hygiene.
  7. Check account involvement in data breaches.
  8. Delete your Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounts after requesting and downloading your data from this surveillance capitalist platform.
  9. Avoid using Google’s services. Use DuckDuckGo.
  10. Be vigilant when sharing any data; this can be in the form of facial data, location, or any form of behavioral data.

Each of the privacy tips can still be expounded further through examples so I leave it to my readers now on how you can put everything into action especially the tips concerning usage of Facebook and Google. A week ago, news about the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 had emerged, probably a few days after or even during the Privacy Awareness Week 2020 (where the National Privacy Commission held an online event via Facebook).

On the other side of the world, activists are being cautious when it comes to privacy. However, the most ironic thing is when people are trying to protect democracy but still kept on using surveillance capitalist platforms (such as Facebook) that are the biggest threats to democracy. Everyone should realize now that governments are slowly beginning to be subordinate to big tech companies.

Now this is why the struggle is real when it comes to defending privacy, fighting surveillance, and protecting free speech. My small wins during the quarantine period at the very least, include spreading awareness about privacy and surveillance capitalism through local and international webinars and getting a group of friends to switch to a more secure and private messaging platform.

In times like this, let us all try to stay safe, and stay free.