We’d all like to feel safe online, but what is meant exactly by ‘safe’?
Online safety includes at least two aspects: security and privacy.
There’s a tendency to use these terms interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. For instance, being secure in digital spaces is all about making sure no one can hack into your data or steal it. It is about securing your data. On the other hand, being private online is all about safeguarding your identity. It’s a subtle difference.
Let’s look into some examples:
Google and Facebook employ thousands of people just to ensure that our data is completely secure. But how much privacy do we really have? They use our data and our metadata to draw conclusions about our behaviour and personalities to better serve advertisements to us.
Similarly, we may use open-source apps that guarantee privacy. But will they always be secure?
Being ‘safe’ online then, is about being both secure and private, as Amoghavarsha H writes, in the first in our series.
A disclaimer here: being ‘safe’ also involves dealing with trolls and harassers, which I covered in this piece and this video. To be specific, our new #DigitalBuddhi series is all about being secure and private when using devices.
We’ve planned a series of pieces, publishing at a rate of 2-3 a week.
In the second piece, Amoghavarsha teaches us how to create a strong password. He writes that even if you were to use a an easy-to-remember password, such as ‘boomlive.in’ (ha!), there are ways to make it strong.
In the third piece, we explain the difference between search engines and web browsers.
Amoghavarsha rounds it off with a fourth piece, titled How to keep web browsers safe and secure while using the internet. From it, I learnt that the word ‘add-on’ can be used interchangeably with ‘plug-in’ and ‘extension’ depending on which browser you use. (OK they’re not exactly interchangeable, but this basic understanding is good for now.)
Our guides are meant for the basic user, but we will also have something for ‘intermediate’ users who take security and privacy more seriously.
Wishing you lots of safety and sanity online!