Section outline

  • This is a free course designed over five steps that can be taken one step at a time, or all steps completed within two hours.

    The course is designed to assist the general public with understanding of ‘personal data’ and our rights to privacy online.

    Our data is collected across the Internet through digital technologies in websites, and in apps (software programmes on mobile devices). These technologies include cookies, small text files placed on desktop computers, laptops or smart devices (tablets, mobile phones) when you visit a page on the Internet. Cookies can include digital trackers, such as tracking the precise location of your device. App settings can have permissions to access your contacts, your camera, your messages, microphone and other data on your mobile devices. The location of a device can personally identify a person who uses or owns the device, so its tracking has data protection and privacy implications.

    By the end of this course, this course will benefit you as a learner by:

    -       being able to understand privacy and its historical context;

    -       recognising what ‘personal data’ is;

    -       identifying the ways personal data is collected across the Internet, including through tracking cookies in websites;

    -       learning about the regulations that grant us rights to privacy online;

    -       gaining knowledge about free online tools that help you explore beneath websites and apps, and turn off tracking technologies.

    In summary, you will gain valuable knowledge about human right to privacy and  practical skills to stop your data being collected across the Internet without your consent.

    Click here to enrol in this course and use enrolment key CSICOP to do so. Once you enrol you will be able to take quizzes and receive a badge upon successful course completion. You will also be able to claim a CSI-COP Certificate upon completion of the course.