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Privacy Guide

Privacy Guide and Resources

It is incredibly important to protect your own and other students' privacy during this time. People who mean to do harm to students are already attempting to get information on New College students. Even one of the new board members DeSantis added to the NCF board spreads propaganda about kids being "groomed" into being transgender in kindergarten.

We have no idea what the future of New College looks like, or what DeSantis will do next to target another marginalized group. What we can do is protect our communications from becoming tools to attack us or put students at risk.

School emails and the forum fall under public record, and DeSantis will have no problem using his authority to use them as he sees fit. This includes the Google tools in your NCF account, like Sheets and Docs. Additionally, Discord servers and DMs are not private, as Discord literally sells access to your messages to advertisers and others. All communication on these platforms should be treated as public record.

Here are some tips for keeping you and other safe:

Use Signal for direct messaging

Signal logo

Signal is a private messaging app that uses encryption to secure your messages, making it virtually impossible for anyone to spy on you. You can download Signal at signal.org and sign up with your phone number. Note that chats are only secure if you are talking with someone also using Signal.

Use Element for group messaging and discussion

Element logo

Element is another encrypted chat app made for group discussion. Think of it as a secure alternative for Slack or Discord. Click here to see a guide I wrote on how to use Element.

Use alternatives to Google services

Google collects an unbelievable amount of data on you and who you communicate with. Not only is this visible to Google, but also with the New College administration, which quite literally just had a hostile takeover by conservatives.

Here are some recommendations for alternatives:

  • Use Signal instead of your NCF email, Instagram DMs, or Discord
  • Use Element instead of Discord
  • Use CryptPad instead of Google Docs, Google Sheets
  • Use Firefox instead of Google Chrome

Be careful what you say on insecure platforms

Do not talk about organizing, activism, etc., on social media, the forum, or Discord. Be extremely cautious of what you say, as it could have severe real-world consequences for you or people you care about.

Over the coming months, the new board members and their fascist conservative cronies will begin cracking down on New College students and professors. All of them, along with DeSantis, clearly want to make an example out of NCF by "fixing the woke universities", and they will not go easy on us. Keep in mind that this is the party that loves to publicly attack and doxx transgender people, with potentially deadly consequences.