Wow. Our neighbors really want to learn about Internet privacy.
My local neighborhood group invited me to make a presentation on privacy at their monthly meeting. I was a little hesitant at first. I have done a lot of classes and seminars in corporate conference settings over the years. But these were my friends and neighbors and most of them are not technical in matters of security and privacy. I was not sure I could give a talk that wasn’t totally nerdy and boring. But I could see and feel the need and agreed to do it.
The response was incredible!
People filled up a living room, kitchen and hallway of the host family. What I thought would be a quick 20-minute presentation turned into an hour-long animated session. There was clearly a strong desire to use more private applications on the Internet, and a willingness to jump in and give it a try.
So, this is a call-out to all of my colleagues in the IT space. You have a role to play in defending our democracy and
YOU ARE NEEDED!
Here are some thoughts that might help you get started:
• Find a local neighborhood group that might be open to a short presentation, talk to the leaders and schedule a time and date.
• Plan on a 30 to 45 minute presentation. (Hint: it might go longer).
• At the meeting introduce yourself and your background. This builds trust.
• Explain the difference between Security and Privacy. (Hint: Google and Facebook are secure, but not private. Signal and Proton Mail are secure AND private).
• Keep it simple – focus on 3 to 5 applications to recommend. (See note below).
• Leave time for questions! There will be questions.
• Take a handout. One page or two pages with suggestions and resources should be enough.
• Remember – Privacy covers a lot of territory and you will only scratch the surface. That is OK. You will help people get started and this will empower them.
Have fun! You nerds are going to make new friends!
Here are the applications I recommend:
• Signal for messaging, phone calls, video calls and groups.
• Proton Mail for email (also has a suite of applications like Google).
• A VPN from MullVAD, NordVPN or Proton.
• Browsers from Tor or MullVAD with the DuckDuckGo search engine.
You will find other recommendations for AI, 2FA and Burner phones on the My Personal Privacy website (see below).
Some suggestions on the meeting presentation:
• There will be things you don’t know – don’t fake it, just tell people you will do the research and get back to them. This will build trust.
• The presentation does not have to be technical or use technical jargon. Keep it simple.
• Don’t spend too much time on any one question. If a question needs more time to answer, I suggest doing a one-on-one after the meeting, or follow up via email.
• Have a hand out. This will help people remember your comments after the meeting is over.
• If you are comfortable with this, give people your email address (Proton Mail, of course.)
Here are some resources you can share with your neighbors:
My Personal Privacy website. There are free, downloadable guides for privacy applications that you can hand out:
https://MyPersonalPrivacy.net
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (but warn people off of WhatsApp):
https://ssd.eff.org/
If you have questions you can DM me here, or contact me at this email address (Proton Mail, of course!):
mypersonalprivacy1@protonmail.com
Stay safe.
Patrick
