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Manila Bulletin devider Technews devider Student's guide to secure online communications

Student's guide to secure online communications

Published Sep 5, 2022 01:12 pm

It is back to school, either full in-person or online or hybrid-flexible, but regardless of which mode your students will be on, they will still need to be able to communicate with their teachers and their classmates using the internet. How do they ensure that their communication channels are secure?

Here's a couple of recommendations. First, do *not* use Facebook or Facebook Messenger or Twitter (not even Twitter DM), as these services are not secure and private! Facebook records who one chats with, when and for how long, and derives some information about how they are related to the people they chat with. Don't forget that it knows the location of their users via their IP addresses.

Twitter, OTOH, has everything out in the open for Twitter to see! When their (boomer?) teacher forces them to go to Facebook for class announcement or what not, limit their participation there - just get them to read and then logout immediately.

Teachers, Facebook is no longer cool, so stop forcing students to use it. Get students to communicate with their teacher via their school provided email. If it is via Microsoft Office for Education or Google Workspace for Education, students can protect themselves by enabling encryption before sending the email.

They can use the same to communicate with their peers. If they need to use their own email, students must get a Proton.Me or Tutanota.com account, they're free, secure and privacy-oriented. However, email is slow and students like instant feedback, so their preferred communications method is via instant messaging systems.

Teach students to use secure messaging systems like Signal (for their close friends whom they exchange their mobile phone numbers with) or Wire (to protect their mobile phone number as it is not required to create an account), or better if they invest in Threema! Forget recommending the boomers' favorite, Viber, as it uses data (yes, that includes phone numbers and your location, among other things!) it collects to generate revenue.

Finally, protect all their online traffic from prying eyes (specially when you connect using free WiFi) by using a VPN. Students can use the free ProtonVPN or Windscribe accounts, but if parents can afford to subscribe. Remember, not all free VPNs are safe. Remember, protect the students' online personal data and behaviour. Once it gets collected, there is no way to get it back!

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