Digital Citizen

Have you ever wondered if you have privacy rights online? As the digital world and the real world become more and more intertwined, the importance of protecting privacy continues to expand.

Lucie Krahulcova, Executive Director at Digital Rights Watch, talks to Ricardo about privacy laws around the world and how to speak up to demand better digital privacy.

Lucie says that the conversation around digital rights and human rights is more important than ever. In this episode, learn about privacy legislation around the globe. We'll also discuss corporate privacy issues, like how some companies model their business around collecting your personal information. But most importantly, we'll tell you what to do to reclaim your digital rights such as choosing products and services that put you first and protect you.

Stay tuned to the end of the episode to hear Helen and Rik talk about the parts of the internet that they love the most and to hear Rik's takeaways.

▶️ Guest Interview - Lucie Krahulcova

• Follow @nomadiclucie on Twitter
• Follow @DRWaus on Twitter
• Visit: https://digitalrightswatch.org.au
• Join the campaign for digital rights cities: https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/cities/

🗣️ Discussion Points

• Lucie is a digital rights advocate who has been working in the space for years now. She is the Executive Director of Digital Rights Watch. The central mission of Digital Rights Watch is to ensure fairness and freedom in the digital space.
• Just having a list of digital rights is not enough to ensure those rights are respected. Unless personal data rights are enshrined in law, many corporations have no incentive to respect your privacy.
• GDPR is one such set of data privacy laws, and while it is a uniquely European approach, it has turned out to be both functional and practical for users. GDPR affected many tech companies globally.
• It's impossible to build a digital rights framework without an existing human rights framework to work from. Globally, if we could agree to go along with the human rights that have already been established we would already have more privacy rights online.
• The amount of data that is collected about the average person is astounding. Many tech companies' entire business model is built around using that data to serve targeted advertising or reselling that data to other companies.
• The cookie pop-ups that are now more common are an example of getting into a contractual relationship with a website you are visiting. When it comes to digital rights, we have to ask, is it reasonable for the average person to have to commit to those kinds of relationships in the normal course of using the internet?
• There is no point in your experience in a city where you are not generating data somewhere, even if it's just traffic volume. People often forget to have conversations with their local representatives about their privacy rights.
• Find the digital rights people in your area and have a conversation with them to learn what you can do to protect your digital rights.
• Most people are surrounded by the internet all the time. With the pandemic, people having connected devices in every room in their house has been normalized. As a whole, we have to be more conscious about how we interact with technology.
• The internet is a double-edged sword. It creates incredible access to resources, information, and community, alongside the negative aspects of losing our privacy. The community you have on the internet is a powerful tool to mobilize people and create real change in the world.

⭐ Takeaways

• You should care about your data privacy, online and in real life. Your digital rights are your human rights in the digital realm. You need to be aware of what data is being collected about you and how it's being used.
• It's important to talk to your local governments and tell them that your digital rights matter to you.
• Share information with your friends and family and talk to them about their digital rights and how the choices that they're making online affect their rights.
• The digital privacy ship has not sailed. There is still time to reclaim your digital rights, and you have the power to get in control of the data being collected about you.

🔵 Find Us

• Digital Citizen Website fastmail.com/digitalcitizen
• For a free month of Fastmail, visit fastmail.com/podcast
• Check out our blog
• Tweet us @Fastmail

💙 Review Us

If you love this show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Around the world, people are spending more time online. If you've spent any of this time "doom-scrolling" your social feeds, you know that social media can impact how you feel. But it's not all doom and gloom, and you can reclaim control. In this episode, Ricardo talks to Tom Webster, a researcher specializing in how people use technology. They'll chat about social media's role in our overall emotional health and how to strike a balance online, so you feel good, not sad.

Tom Webster breaks down the research around social media, its usage, and its impact on people's lives. Learn about how social media has changed the way people interact with each other over the past two decades, what that means for your personal happiness and well being, and how to use social media in a responsible way that protects your emotional state and helps you avoid the rabbit hole of rampant, and often rabid, personal opinion.

Before and after the interview, Rik and Helen talk about the social media platforms that they use and how they use them.

If you cut out social media from your life, are you still a digital citizen? We need to begin thinking about how to be a good digital citizens by understanding the tradeoffs we make by using social media.

🎙️Guest Interview - Tom Webster

• Follow @webby2001 on Twitter
• Edison Research
• Learn more about Tom's social media research

🗣️ Discussion Points

• Social media encompasses many different spaces. Exploring how they make us feel is crucial to the conversation around social media.
• People need to be more intentional around social media and deliberately make choices about how much to use it instead of falling into the same habits each day.
• Tom Webster is the Senior Vice President at Edison Research. Each week, they put out a study about social media platforms, who is using them, and their impact on society.
• One of the things they found in the survey was that roughly half the respondents thought that social media was harming them somehow. Like a glass of water can't be half dirty, from a societal perspective, social media has certainly had a harmful effect on some level.
• A significant percentage of people get their news from social media, but that's a bit deceptive since the ultimate sources are often news media companies. Social media's primary effect is to amplify the lesser heard voice, which comes with its own set of benefits and challenges.
• The ability to fact-check information on Facebook is an issue of scale. There is no governing body like the FCC for social media, but a good solution is not necessarily government action. Much of the success of social media is because of the lack of regulation.
• There is a lot of good that comes from social media. Tom takes certain steps to protect his well-being while using social media, and one of the biggest is that he completely avoids reading editorials and opinion pieces.
• Tom is a consistent un-follower of people. His test for people is not whether he agrees or disagrees with them. It's whether they are willing to entertain an argument against their perspective. You can't uninvite Uncle Ralph from Thanksgiving dinner, but you don't have to follow them on Facebook.
• It's the community's job to make sure that everybody feels heard and to avoid harming anyone else. If you can do those two things, you are contributing value to that community.

⭐ Takeaways

• Tom Webster's suggestion about how to be a better digital citizen:
• • Have a healthy media diet and understand the sources of the information that you are taking in.
  • Don't unfollow or block people if they disagree with you, but unfollow or block them if they are disagreeable.
  • Be careful with opinions and editorials because they are designed to inflame and incite.
  • Look for the smaller communities based around an enjoyable activity.
• The key point to remember is that social media impacts how you feel. You should be putting your own mental health first and prioritizing what is good for you. Be very careful where you get your news and what sources you trust.
• Things that make you feel bad don't deserve a spot in your day, and definitely don't deserve to be the first thing you see when you wake up.

📍 Find Us

• Digital Citizen Website
• For a free month trial of Fastmail, visit fastmail.com/podcast
• Check out our blog
• Tweet us @Fastmail

💙 Review Us

If you love this show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to the first episode of the Digital Citizen podcast! Your host, Fastmail's CTO, Ricardo (Rik) Signes, talks to BJ Fogg, a behavioral scientist, about how to make positive changes in your digital life.

In an increasingly technological world, it's essential to leverage the power of tiny habits to create meaningful, lasting change in your behavior. BJ Fogg talks with us about how you can use his framework to have a healthier relationship with technology and the people in your life.

Rik and Fastmail's COO, Helen, talk about the digital habits they want to change in their daily lives. Before the show, we learn that Rik and Helen's dream show topics include the Fast and The Furious franchise, playing cricket, and science fiction books!

▶️ Guest Interview - BJ Fogg

• Follow @bjfogg on Twitter
• Visit: tinyhabits.com/join
• Reduce your screen time: screentime.stanford.edu

🗣️ Discussion Points

• BJ Fogg is a behavioral scientist who wrote the book, Tiny Habits. His work has always focused on helping people be happier and healthier through behavior change.
• The Fogg Behavior Model is the core of behavior design. A behavior happens when three things come together simultaneously: the motivation to do the behavior, the ability to do the behavior, and the prompt. If any one of those things is missing, the habit won't happen.
• You can think of habits like plants. You take a good seed (habit) and put it into a good spot (in your routine), and then nurture it. If you don't tend to your garden, you will end up cultivating a garden of weeds.
• Technology should be used to bring humans together. If you are having a conversation with someone, put your phone away and give them your full attention.
• Go into your phone and take control of your notifications. Don't let apps dictate your behavior.
• BJ and his lab have been studying the effects of screen time on people and how they can better understand where and how they spend their time.
• Managing and strengthening our closest relationships is the best use of our mobile phones.

⭐ Takeaways

• BJ Fogg's suggestions on how to become a better digital citizen:
  • Alert people of the dangers of certain social media platforms
  • Help people understand that some web browsers track immense amounts of data about you
  • Sit down with someone to help them with their notifications (if you see something designed to exploit people, you should let them know)
  • Promote and share the things that make us happier and healthier
• We spend a lot of time interacting with computers. We need to be intentional about how we interact with them and what goals we want to achieve.
• You can help others by sharing with people what you know. For example, talk about the value of password managers and two-factor authentication for better privacy and security. Being a good digital citizen is about helping others live better online every day.

🔵 Find Us

• Digital Citizen Website - fastmail.com/digitalcitizen
• For a free month of Fastmail, visit fastmail.com/podcast
• Check out our blog
• Tweet us @Fastmail

💙 Review Us

If you love this show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

How to live your best digital life and make the Internet a better place.

From your friends at Fastmail.com