E-mail
E-mail has become a mainstay in our daily lives and is used by billions of people. It can be a great way to communicate and share ideas. Because of the fact that email is so ingrained into our live sand work flows, we don't stop to think about some of the potential risks of using it. Have you ever sent an email and wished you could take it back? Realistically, there is no way for that to happen. Even if the e-mail is internal to Camosun, there is no way for it to be recalled fully. If you are finding that you are the type of person who clicks send and then realize 5 seconds later that there was a typo or that you missed some piece of information, a potential fix for this is adding a delay to your message sending. Many mail clients support adding a delay when sending messages so that you are able to cancel it before it goes out.
Social Media
Social media has broken down many barriers in regards to keeping in touch with people in our lives. Long distances are a thing of the past. We are able to follow the lives of people on the other side of the planet at the press of a button. While this kind of connectivity can be a great socialization tool, you should be careful with what you put out there in the world and who has access to it. Many social media sites have privacy settings where you can adjust exactly who can see your data to your comfort levels. These settings also evolve over time so it is worth reviewing yearly. Consider setting a calendar reminder that repeats each year to review and go through the privacy settings for each site that you use. If you find that you have stopped using a particular service and know you will never use it again, you can usually request for your account to be deleted and with it, all data associated with the account.
Instant Messaging
Aside from e-mail and social media, another popular form of communication is instant messaging. These services, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Signal, offer instant communication for anyone with an Internet connection. The dangers associated with these services are similar to those surrounding other communication platforms. Spam and phishing messages are very common. There are privacy concerns surrounding who exactly has access to these messages. If you are worried about service providers reading your messages, consider choosing a platform that does not engage in active or passive monitoring. WhatsApp messages are encrypted, but they can still be read by their parent company, Facebook, under certain conditions. A service such as Signal is encrypted and there currently is no way for the organization to read your messages. Make sure you do research into your chosen platform and compare it against your comfort levels.
