Including gender in privacy and digital security - Revision history

Alex: Alex moved page Introduction to Including gender in privacy and digital security

2015-07-17T10:29:13Z

Alex moved page Introduction to Including gender in privacy and digital security

Alex at 10:28, 17 July 2015

2015-07-17T10:28:46Z

Alex at 11:00, 29 May 2015

2015-05-29T11:00:39Z

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Nuria: titles improve

2015-05-27T12:03:14Z

titles improve

Nuria at 12:00, 27 May 2015

2015-05-27T12:00:34Z

Nuria: divide in parts

2015-05-27T11:54:56Z

divide in parts

Nuria at 11:45, 27 May 2015

2015-05-27T11:45:25Z

Nuria at 11:40, 27 May 2015

2015-05-27T11:40:23Z

Nuria at 11:30, 27 May 2015

2015-05-27T11:30:44Z

Nuria at 11:27, 27 May 2015

2015-05-27T11:27:36Z

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 The Gender and Technology Institute enabled the creation of a conversation coming from experiences located in 30 different countries about how we could develop practices that enable women, trans* persons and other groups at risk to include privacy and digital security into their lives, and how we could keep on learning while helping others to learn about those concepts, methods and tools once back home. Recurrently, our reduced amount of free time, fragmented and precarious lives and lack of individual and collective self-care cultures were pointed at as major challenges to become trainers on the ground. How can we include and pack those fast evolving privacy and digital security practices into our already very busy lives as human rights defenders and activists? How can we find collective mechanisms of support to keep advancing together and empower each other?
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 This manual is divided in two core parts. First, it will explore the questions of and practices surrounding the management of online identities. When wanting to improve ones digital security and privacy practices, it is crucial to understand the threats and challenges we face and are exposed to when living online and the ways in which to protect oneself accordingly. Second, the focus will go over the concept of safe spaces, its importance both online and offline and the ways in which a group or a community can build safe spaces to bring about empowerment, enable resistance when necessary, care for oneself and others, and fostering our community.
 [[Category:Resources]]

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 When referring to self-inclusion of women and trans* persons in ICT we position ourselves as agents conducting our own ICT inclusion and focus on the mechanisms that we activate and/or decide to follow to contribute to and transform ICT. The main self-inclusion mechanism commonly stated consists of learning.  However, many women do not learn in formal education nor study engineering, but engage in non-formal, informal learning processes and often volunteer activities. In addition, as in many other sectors, women and trans* persons seek and access ICT jobs and activism to self-include themselves in ICT. However, due to gender stereotypes we find it difficult to engage in self-promotion or in making visible our contributions. When finding barriers in a given context or seeking new opportunities most of the women and trans* persons have opted for mobility, both occupational and geographic. Many of us become entrepreneurs or tech related activists to carry out our ideas and projects, alone or with other partners, to maintain and continue our ICT practices, as well as set several self-regulating practices as another mechanism of self-inclusion, such as establishing certain plans and organizations to follow. Women and trans* persons also build new networks. In relation to that, we have been collaborating and sharing knowledge but also works, codes and resources that could help and be used by others. Through collective participation we learn, interact or even generate new projects as well as new forms of inclusion. In ocassions we create new groups or events that could foster gender and technology at the same time.
-=== Inclusion factors ===
+==== Inclusion factors ====
 Previous experiences related to gender inclusion have identified a number of auspicious factors facilitating the entrance and immersion of women and minorized groups in technology.In a nutshell main recommendations for the inclusion of more women into technology and therefore privacy and digital security fields are:
@@ Line 88: / Line 88: @@
 Moreover, our own learning processes and exchanges have also brought deep insights about what stands at the core of a methodological approach for gender inclusion into privacy and digital security making us aware of the importance of adopting an intersectional and feminist approach to technologies, inasmuch as an integrated (holistic) approach to security.
-=== Intersectionality ===
+==== Intersectionality ====
 Intersectionality refers to a corpus of theories and practices that state that oppression within society, such as sexism, racism, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, and belief-based bigotry, do not act independently of one another. These forms of oppression interrelate, creating a system that reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of discrimination.7 Intersectionality goes hand by hand with a gender lens because both require to understand ones privileges in any of the different dimensions of our social lives. The women composing this network have indeed many identities that can relate to their ethnic background, age, geographical location, economical situation, political and inner beliefs, sexual orientation, professional status, mobility capacities and a long list of other elements. Accordingly when assessing the risks they are exposed to and the strengths they have,  which constitute the basis of any travel journey towards privacy and digital security, they are required to take into account all those dimensions.
-=== Integrated security perspective ===
+==== Integrated security perspective ====
 Additionally, the integrated (holistic) security perspective seeks to overcome the unhelpful separation between approaches which focus on digital security, personal/organizational security, and psycho-social well-being. This involves recognizing the effect of stress, fatigue and trauma on activists abilities to engage with 'rational' processes of risk analysis, security planning and skill building in digital security; furthermore, it recognises the impact of new technologies on our ability to accurately perceive indicators of danger and take action to stay safe. Many participants felt that an integrated approach to security made more sense with many of the groups that were trained on the ground such as indigenous groups, women in rural and poor areas, LGTBQ, sex and health activists, anti mining and environmental activists, journalists and community champions. An integrated approach enables participants to think about how threats related to each others and which security practices help them to transform their loneliness and individual fears into collective strategies to overcome dangers and creating protection among the members of a connected network.

@@ Line 62: / Line 62: @@
 ==== Moving towards inclusion ====
-To stop exclusion is not the same thing as achieving inclusion. Focusing on exclusion might lead us to believe that inclusion is impossible, when there are actually women who include themselves in ICT and digital inclusion actions and policies that have been effective. There is a need to shift the question from why women or trans* persons do not access, use, study or work in ICT to the question of why, where and how we have become involved in ICT and have been welcomed to it. This becomes more consistent with feminist theories that considers the experiences of women and trans* persones at the heart and point of departure of our reflections and has brought to light the contributions, uses and desires we make of ICT. With this, role models for many more could be put in the spotlight, as well stereotypes about gender and ICT could be weakened.
+To stop exclusion is not the same thing as achieving inclusion. Focusing on exclusion might lead us to believe that inclusion is impossible, when there are actually women who include themselves in ICT and digital inclusion actions and policies that have been effective. There is a need to shift the question from why women or trans* persons do not access, use, study or work in ICT to the question of why, where and how we have become involved in ICT and have been welcomed to it. This becomes more consistent with feminisms that consider the experiences of women and trans* persones at the heart and point of departure of our reflections and have brought to light the contributions, uses and desires we make of ICT. With this, role models for many more could be put in the spotlight, as well stereotypes about gender and ICT could be weakened.
 The need for women and trans* persons' inclusion in ICT is a question of gender justice and equality. However, there are many other arguments that support an improved inclusion in ICT. Increasing our representation in ICT also increases the pool of skilled IT workers, and privacy and digital security developers and trainers. Moreover, this means to work in sectors with higher pay and prestige and at the cutting edge of current changes. Including women and trans* persons in ICT would also increase the diversity of participant profiles in developing ICT and the information society in general. This would include the voices, perspectives and needs of thousands of potential users, as well as increasing the opportunities for creating new technological products that are more extensive and adaptable to many different profiles while, at the same time, facilitating the development and transformation of the ICT sector itself and society as a whole.

@@ Line 62: / Line 62: @@
 ==== Moving towards inclusion ====
-To stop exclusion is not the same thing as achieving inclusion. Focusing on exclusion might lead us to believe that inclusion is impossible, when there are actually women who include themselves in ICT and digital inclusion actions and policies that have been effective. There is a need to shift the question from why women do not access, use, study or work in ICT to the question of why, where and how women have become involved in ICT and have been welcomed to it. This becomes more consistent with feminist theories that considers the experiences of women and their diversity at the heart and point of departure of our reflections and has brought to light the contributions, uses and desires that women make of ICT. With this, role models for many more could be put in the spotlight, as well stereotypes about gender and ICT could be weakened.
+To stop exclusion is not the same thing as achieving inclusion. Focusing on exclusion might lead us to believe that inclusion is impossible, when there are actually women who include themselves in ICT and digital inclusion actions and policies that have been effective. There is a need to shift the question from why women or trans* persons do not access, use, study or work in ICT to the question of why, where and how we have become involved in ICT and have been welcomed to it. This becomes more consistent with feminist theories that considers the experiences of women and trans* persones at the heart and point of departure of our reflections and has brought to light the contributions, uses and desires we make of ICT. With this, role models for many more could be put in the spotlight, as well stereotypes about gender and ICT could be weakened.
-The need for women’s inclusion in ICT is a question of gender justice and equality. However, there are many other arguments that support an improved inclusion of women in ICT. Increasing women's representation in ICT also increases the pool of skilled IT workers, and privacy and digital security developers and trainers. Moreover, they work in sectors with higher pay and prestige and at the cutting edge of current changes. Including women in ICT would also increase the diversity of participant profiles in developing ICT and the information society in general. This would include the voices, perspectives and needs of thousands of potential users, as well as increasing the opportunities for creating new technological products that are more extensive and adaptable to many different profiles while, at the same time, facilitating the development and transformation of the ICT sector itself and society as a whole.
+The need for women and trans* persons' inclusion in ICT is a question of gender justice and equality. However, there are many other arguments that support an improved inclusion in ICT. Increasing our representation in ICT also increases the pool of skilled IT workers, and privacy and digital security developers and trainers. Moreover, this means to work in sectors with higher pay and prestige and at the cutting edge of current changes. Including women and trans* persons in ICT would also increase the diversity of participant profiles in developing ICT and the information society in general. This would include the voices, perspectives and needs of thousands of potential users, as well as increasing the opportunities for creating new technological products that are more extensive and adaptable to many different profiles while, at the same time, facilitating the development and transformation of the ICT sector itself and society as a whole.
 ==== Self-inclusion mechanisms ====
-When referring to self-inclusion of women and trans* persons in ICT we position ourselves as agents conducting their own ICT inclusion and focus on the mechanisms that we activate and/or decide to follow to contribute to and transform ICT. The main self-inclusion mechanism commonly stated consists of learning.  However, many women do not learn in formal education nor study engineering, but engage in non-formal, informal learning processes and often volunteer activities. In addition, as in many other sectors, women and trans* persons seek and access ICT jobs and activism to self-include themselves in ICT. However, due to gender stereotypes we find it difficult to engage in self-promotion or in making visible their contribution. When finding barriers in a given context or seeking new opportunities most of the women have opted for mobility, both occupational and geographic. Many of us become entrepreneurs or tech related activists to carry out our ideas and projects, alone or with other partners, to maintain and continue our ICT practices, as well as set several self-regulating practices as another mechanism of self-inclusion, such as establishing certain plans and organizations to follow. Women and trans* persons also build new networks. In relation to that, we have been collaborating and sharing knowledge but also works, codes and resources that could help and be used by others. Through collective participation we learn, interact or even generate new projects as well as new forms of inclusion. In ocassions we create new groups or events that could foster gender and technology at the same time.
+When referring to self-inclusion of women and trans* persons in ICT we position ourselves as agents conducting our own ICT inclusion and focus on the mechanisms that we activate and/or decide to follow to contribute to and transform ICT. The main self-inclusion mechanism commonly stated consists of learning.  However, many women do not learn in formal education nor study engineering, but engage in non-formal, informal learning processes and often volunteer activities. In addition, as in many other sectors, women and trans* persons seek and access ICT jobs and activism to self-include themselves in ICT. However, due to gender stereotypes we find it difficult to engage in self-promotion or in making visible our contributions. When finding barriers in a given context or seeking new opportunities most of the women and trans* persons have opted for mobility, both occupational and geographic. Many of us become entrepreneurs or tech related activists to carry out our ideas and projects, alone or with other partners, to maintain and continue our ICT practices, as well as set several self-regulating practices as another mechanism of self-inclusion, such as establishing certain plans and organizations to follow. Women and trans* persons also build new networks. In relation to that, we have been collaborating and sharing knowledge but also works, codes and resources that could help and be used by others. Through collective participation we learn, interact or even generate new projects as well as new forms of inclusion. In ocassions we create new groups or events that could foster gender and technology at the same time.
 === Inclusion factors ===
@@ Line 74: / Line 74: @@
 Previous experiences related to gender inclusion have identified a number of auspicious factors facilitating the entrance and immersion of women and minorized groups in technology.In a nutshell main recommendations for the inclusion of more women into technology and therefore privacy and digital security fields are:
-* Facilitate women’s and trans* persons access to ICT. For example: encourage your daughter or student, create pedagogical materials on gender and ICT, share your mouse and tools with her, and collaborate with collectives that work on equality.
+* Facilitate women and trans* persons' access to ICT. For example: encourage your daughter or student, create pedagogical materials on gender and ICT, share your mouse and tools with her, and collaborate with collectives that work on equality.
-* Make visible, create awareness and recognise women’s and trans* persons contributions. For example: Pay attention and visualize their past and present experiences and achievements. Give credit and promote their contributions and their gender diversity.
+* Make visible, create awareness and recognise women and trans* persons' contributions. For example: Pay attention and visualize their past and present experiences and achievements. Give credit and promote their contributions and their gender diversity.
 * Create gender friendly environments. For example: implement a welcome policy, encourage work-life balance measures, avoid sexist jokes and fight against any type of harassment and violence.
@@ Line 88: / Line 88: @@
 Moreover, our own learning processes and exchanges have also brought deep insights about what stands at the core of a methodological approach for gender inclusion into privacy and digital security making us aware of the importance of adopting an intersectional and feminist approach to technologies, inasmuch as an integrated (holistic) approach to security.
 Intersectionality refers to a corpus of theories and practices that state that oppression within society, such as sexism, racism, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, and belief-based bigotry, do not act independently of one another. These forms of oppression interrelate, creating a system that reflects the "intersection" of multiple forms of discrimination.7 Intersectionality goes hand by hand with a gender lens because both require to understand ones privileges in any of the different dimensions of our social lives. The women composing this network have indeed many identities that can relate to their ethnic background, age, geographical location, economical situation, political and inner beliefs, sexual orientation, professional status, mobility capacities and a long list of other elements. Accordingly when assessing the risks they are exposed to and the strengths they have,  which constitute the basis of any travel journey towards privacy and digital security, they are required to take into account all those dimensions.
 Additionally, the integrated (holistic) security perspective seeks to overcome the unhelpful separation between approaches which focus on digital security, personal/organizational security, and psycho-social well-being. This involves recognizing the effect of stress, fatigue and trauma on activists abilities to engage with 'rational' processes of risk analysis, security planning and skill building in digital security; furthermore, it recognises the impact of new technologies on our ability to accurately perceive indicators of danger and take action to stay safe. Many participants felt that an integrated approach to security made more sense with many of the groups that were trained on the ground such as indigenous groups, women in rural and poor areas, LGTBQ, sex and health activists, anti mining and environmental activists, journalists and community champions. An integrated approach enables participants to think about how threats related to each others and which security practices help them to transform their loneliness and individual fears into collective strategies to overcome dangers and creating protection among the members of a connected network.

@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
 This review of the steps composing the technological cycle shows that including gender into privacy and digital security requires first to acknowledge that gender gaps, discrimination and VAW are happening along the process in a structural way and that they influence the conditions of women, trans* persons and at risk minorities in relation to their experience of/with ICT. It also shows that when we use technologies, we should reflect about how those are liberating or alienating for other groups and individuals. Liberating technologies can be defined as appropriated technologies that do not harm, are rooted in the free software and culture principles and are designed by default against gender based violence, surveillance, opacity and programmed obsolescence, and this is one of the first things we should consider when switching from fighting exclusion to focusing on inclusion.
-====Moving towards inclusion====
+==== Moving towards inclusion ====
 To stop exclusion is not the same thing as achieving inclusion. Focusing on exclusion might lead us to believe that inclusion is impossible, when there are actually women who include themselves in ICT and digital inclusion actions and policies that have been effective. There is a need to shift the question from why women do not access, use, study or work in ICT to the question of why, where and how women have become involved in ICT and have been welcomed to it. This becomes more consistent with feminist theories that considers the experiences of women and their diversity at the heart and point of departure of our reflections and has brought to light the contributions, uses and desires that women make of ICT. With this, role models for many more could be put in the spotlight, as well stereotypes about gender and ICT could be weakened.
@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 The need for women’s inclusion in ICT is a question of gender justice and equality. However, there are many other arguments that support an improved inclusion of women in ICT. Increasing women's representation in ICT also increases the pool of skilled IT workers, and privacy and digital security developers and trainers. Moreover, they work in sectors with higher pay and prestige and at the cutting edge of current changes. Including women in ICT would also increase the diversity of participant profiles in developing ICT and the information society in general. This would include the voices, perspectives and needs of thousands of potential users, as well as increasing the opportunities for creating new technological products that are more extensive and adaptable to many different profiles while, at the same time, facilitating the development and transformation of the ICT sector itself and society as a whole.
-====Self-inclusion mechanisms and factors====
+==== Self-inclusion mechanisms ====
 When referring to self-inclusion of women and trans* persons in ICT we position ourselves as agents conducting their own ICT inclusion and focus on the mechanisms that we activate and/or decide to follow to contribute to and transform ICT. The main self-inclusion mechanism commonly stated consists of learning.  However, many women do not learn in formal education nor study engineering, but engage in non-formal, informal learning processes and often volunteer activities. In addition, as in many other sectors, women and trans* persons seek and access ICT jobs and activism to self-include themselves in ICT. However, due to gender stereotypes we find it difficult to engage in self-promotion or in making visible their contribution. When finding barriers in a given context or seeking new opportunities most of the women have opted for mobility, both occupational and geographic. Many of us become entrepreneurs or tech related activists to carry out our ideas and projects, alone or with other partners, to maintain and continue our ICT practices, as well as set several self-regulating practices as another mechanism of self-inclusion, such as establishing certain plans and organizations to follow. Women and trans* persons also build new networks. In relation to that, we have been collaborating and sharing knowledge but also works, codes and resources that could help and be used by others. Through collective participation we learn, interact or even generate new projects as well as new forms of inclusion. In ocassions we create new groups or events that could foster gender and technology at the same time.
 Previous experiences related to gender inclusion have identified a number of auspicious factors facilitating the entrance and immersion of women and minorized groups in technology.In a nutshell main recommendations for the inclusion of more women into technology and therefore privacy and digital security fields are:

← Older revision	Revision as of 10:29, 17 July 2015
(No difference)

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 Previous experiences related to gender inclusion have identified a number of auspicious factors facilitating the entrance and immersion of women and minorities groups in technology.In a nutshell main recommendations for the inclusion of more women into technology and therefore privacy and digital security fields are:
-* Facilitate women’s access to ICT. For example: encourage your daughter or student, create pedagogical materials for women and ICT, share your mouse and tools with her, and collaborate with collectives that work on equality.
+* Facilitate women’s and trans* persons access to ICT. For example: encourage your daughter or student, create pedagogical materials on gender and ICT, share your mouse and tools with her, and collaborate with collectives that work on equality.
-* Make visible, create awareness and recognise women’s contributions. For example: Pay attention and visualize women past and present experiences and achievements. Give credit and promote their contributions and their gender diversity.
+* Make visible, create awareness and recognise women’s and trans* persons contributions. For example: Pay attention and visualize their past and present experiences and achievements. Give credit and promote their contributions and their gender diversity.
 * Create gender friendly environments. For example: implement a welcome policy, encourage work-life balance measures, avoid sexist jokes and fight against any type of harassment and violence.