What should I be teaching my students, post NSA revellations? | Hacker News Reader

What should I be teaching my students, post NSA revellations?

13 pointsHyrum_Graff12 comments

I am a teacher of Computing. I'm seeing plenty of stories and comments on HN with regard to how we can better protect out own privacy, and plenty of retorts explaining that the average citizen does not have the technical ability to enact these measures.

So tell me, what should I do differently in my classroom from now on? What are the fundamental concepts and skills I should be teaching my students, to assist them in protecting their privacy and data?

View on HN

You should teach them to be good people by example and subtle advice. And above all, show them that programming is one of the most enjoyable intellectual activities and actually needs no computer at all. You can write programs with pen and paper, or just in your mind. And if somehow the government ends up watching live feeds of us all one day (I don't think we're there yet btw), then who cares. Professional athletes still win games when the whole world's watching. And we used to, or still do, believe in all-knowing God(s). Let's just hope the god of the next generation follows the 'golden rule' of treating others the way you want to be treated, and also making us in god's image. Or let's hope there's no god at all. Yeah... I think the news this week is that profound. NSA/CIA/FBI/etc have ascended to have nearly god-like powers... we must put them in their place, afterall, our country was founded upon the idea that no man can take away our God-granted liberties. That turns out to be a powerful and useful concept, whether you're a believer or not.

I would steer clear of things like VPN and Tor. You might want to mention them but that's about it as it might get you in quite a bit of troubles with parents, the school etc.

GPG is a good thing to teach, the same as HTTPS and things like the EFF's HTTPS-Everywhere extension for most major browsers. Don't just stick to HTTPS though, make the leap to TLS/SSL and how it can be used to protect other forms of communication like e-mail.

BitTorrent Sync would be another thing I'd have a look at as it allows them to create their own Dropbox-like system, sharing files with friends etc. without entrusting their data to a third party.

Someone advised to never use free e-mail services but even with paid ones you have no guarantee your data won't be turned over. So if you want to be absolutely sure, host your stuff yourself.

Have a look at the Freedombox, https://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/, and ark-OS, http://ark-os.org/. Teach them about open source communication platforms and protocols such as XMPP (Jabber). You don't have to teach them how to set this stuff up, that would also require a working knowledge of Linux, but make them aware. Linux itself wouldn't be a bad thing to mention too.

Most importantly though, don't be an idiot. Don't share things on the internet you deem private or not for public consumption or when you do chose to do so, make sure others can't reade it.

Remind them that the Internet is forever, anything that reaches somebody else's computer screen can be assumed to be potentially public knowledge.

I think that beyond the obvious skills (encrypting everything, using HTTPS and TOR where possible) you need to instill in them a healthy sense of paranoia. If they think the government is reading their Facebook chat messages they're sure as hell not going to use it.

I'm going to teach about HTTPS (It's already on the GCSE syllabus), but teaching TOR might be an issue. Giving students the skills to access the deepweb (Silk Road for instance) might cause some problems with parents.

Teach them how to use PGP/GPG, S/MIME, VPNs, never to use "free" email services, never post anything identifying on any social networking site, don't use cloud file services without encrypting files first/etc.

Thats a good start anyways.

To amend that, I would also elaborate on why they should use such things as no one wants to be told without given reasons. In giving reasons, I would explain how you can be tracked as well (what things like an IP address are in relatable terms and how it is logged in services they use [including email]), so they understand why and how the tools should be used.

Also, I would teach them not to post or share anything on the Internet that they do not wish to come back to haunt them at a later date. Give examples of users that have had such things happen and the consequences as well (since many people do not believe it can happen to them). If they use services like Facebook, limit how much info you share (and also private info you give Facebook) and use a private browser windows while browsing such sites. Obviously this does not prevent everything, but there's no reason to make those that would watch them's jobs that much easier.

I like the idea of teaching GPG as I can fit that into a general scheme on cryptography.

There are problems with one of your suggestions however. If I teach students how to use a VPN, I'm potentially giving them the skills to access pirated material anonymously and/or attempt to circumvent the school's safety filters. Their parents might have issue with this.

Using a VPN for piracy is no different than using open wifi for piracy. Most children over the age of 10 can circumvent a "safety filter" on a computer. IMHO these are non-issues.

THIS IS ### TRANSPARENCY.

I'd just like to point out that the issues here are not clear cut. Teaching students to hide their activities from the authorities also enables them to hide their activities from parents and schools. I have greatest scope to teach what I like between the ages of 11-14. Are children this young able to responsibly use the skills I might provide them in masking their identities online and protecting their data?

Yes, children this young are totally able to use their skills responsibly. If you think it's necessary to eavesdrop on your kids, read all their private communications --- how will they ever trust you?

If you want to find out about a teenager's life, you'd be surprised how far talking to them will get you. Don't talk at them, don't interrogate them; just be interested without judging them. Most kids, like most grownups, are happy to trust and share secrets with anybody who understands them.

If you spied on your kids, and eg. found out they took drugs, what would you do? If you don't understand their situation, their point of view, there's nothing you could do to help them.

But if you do understand their situation, you won't need to spy on them; you'll feel it when they need your help. You'll be able to provide guidance, and since you didn't violate their trust, your kids just might accept your help.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com