Your Right to Privacy Online course was co-designed with Pat Walshe of Privacy Matters, a data-privacy expert. You will also find some of Privacy Matters' graphics in the course steps.
This course is offered by the CSI-COP project with the aim of raising awareness of the human right to privacy online, and to invite members of the general public to co-investigate the extent of tracking in websites we visit and in apps we use.
Your Right to Privacy Online course is designed over five steps that can be taken one step at a time, or all steps completed within three hours.
This course would suit any individual over the age of 18 who is interested in understanding how our data is collected across the web and through apps we use, and people who want to learn about how to protect our privacy online.
The course aims to assist the general public with an 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.
We encourage you to ask your family and friends what they think about the different topics in this course. You could post your views on CSI-COP website forum here: https://csi-cop.eu/forum/ - you will need to register on the website before posting on the forum by creating a log-in here:
https://csi-cop.eu/citizenscientistlogin/
CSI-COP project's free Your Right to Privacy Online' is designed over the following five steps:
Step 2: Data
Step 3: Online Tracking
Step 4: Rights to data protection and privacy
Step 5: Tools to protect your data and privacy
There will be activities at the end of each step to help you review your learning.
Completing each step will provide you with the knowledge to make informed decisions about your right to privacy online, and to equip you with the skills needed to check for, and block tracking technologies across the Internet and in apps on your Android devices (e.g. Samsung mobile, or tablet). Once completed, you can request a CSI-COP informal education certificate. You can then progress from an informal learner to becoming a volunteer citizen scientist joining the CSI-COP team to investigate the extent that your data is being tracked across the Internet (please see step 5)