Submitted by Admin
The subject of online privacy has been gaining more traction over the years, especially among younger generations. However, even students who are willing and able to implement measures to protect their online privacy may have a hard time doing so if they can’t count on their campuses to work as allies in their efforts to protect their data. As university life becomes more ingrained with the use of digital tools, the choice of tools and the implementation of digital solutions on campus end up playing a big role in how well individual students can protect their data.
All of this makes it more important than ever for university campuses to take a privacy-focused approach when it comes to digital learning. Not only to set a good example for students and faculty but also to make sure that students aren’t forced to choose between keeping their data private and completing their academic education. Students should be able to do both.
Why is privacy important?
It’s important to address this point before we move forward with this discussion. Why is personal privacy important in the online world? There are plenty of good answers to that question, but here is one of the most straightforward ones: privacy is important because the internet does not forget.
Forum posts and web pages are documented and archived. Personal data obtained by governmental programs and marketing agencies are stored in bulk, with the latter group also buying and selling these bulks of data as commodities. And information leaked through data breaches often ends up becoming public and is subsequently archived in databases that anyone can access. Piles upon piles of personal information, passwords, and much more are all stored forever in the online world.
This means that anyone who doesn’t work to protect their privacy will leave an ever-increasing digital footprint behind their path, creating piles of information that may cause issues to their personal and professional lives ten, twenty, or even thirty years from now. The internet does not forget, and finding information on individuals is only becoming easier as time goes by. And even if a given student never writes, says, or does anything “wrong” online — and the definition of “wrong” can and has changed over time — their leftover data from their college years can still be used to pull off identity theft, or gain access to their online accounts.
What can universities do?
As mentioned, students shouldn’t be forced to give up their privacy to go about their academic careers. This makes it important for the universities to take good care of any online student databases they may have through the use of open-source encryption and other cybersecurity solutions, such as decentralized VPNs. Both can help make the campus network more secure, and VPNs are more affordable and easy to implement, making them a great place for campuses to start improving their digital security. The key, of course, is to choose the right VPN with a commitment to data privacy. Decentralized VPNs tend to perform better in this aspect, as privacy is built right into the network infrastructure, preventing the VPN provider from hoarding user data.
It’s also important to keep the digital infrastructure on campus updated and as safe as it can be. This means having experts periodically take a look at the university servers and public internet hotspots to make sure they are reasonably safe to use and free from outside interference.
Finally, faculty members should be mindful of student’s privacy when choosing which online tools and solutions to use. For example, students shouldn’t be forced to use online tools or social media platforms famous for selling user data just to be able to complete certain projects or to be able to stay in touch with their teachers.