Safe browsing

Begin the session by asking participants which web browsers they use and what other options they have heard of. Present Firefox - explain the benefits of using it, and discuss briefly the difference between it and other common browsers such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

Optional: If working with Spanish speaking women, you might also find this video from Ella useful to begin the conversation: https://vimeo.com/109258771

There are quite a few safer browsing practices to discuss that can be shared with participants – while you don’t need to cover every single one of them, it is recommended to share enough to give your participants options (also remember to keep your content contextualized by sharing practices most relevant to participant context).

Explain to the group that you will be reviewing some safe browsing practices with them, but not yet focusing on specific tools other than the browsers themselves. Some participants might already be willing to change browsers, but others may not yet be – so before discussing more specific tools like browser plug-ins, it’s important to keep the discussion grounded first in practice.

Here are some example practices you can discuss:

• Being vigilant of phishing and spear phishing attempts;
• Blocking embedded ads and pop-up ads;
• How cookies work – be sure to talk about how convenient they can be, but that they also have downsides;
• Disabling and erasing cookies from the browsers;
• Deleting browsing history;
• Not saving passwords in your browser settings;
• Checking the extensions that you add to your browser;
• Enabling the Do Not Track option in your browser;
• Google search alternatives (such as Duck Duck Go)
• Who implements online tracking and why? (Both https://trackography.org and https://www.mozilla.org/es-MX/lightbeam/ are good resources about this);
• Discuss HTTP versus HTTPS;
• What is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and when should these be used?
• What exactly does Incognito Mode do, and when should it be used?

Explain, now that you’ve addressed some basic practices for safer browsing, that you can also suggest certain tools – specifically browser plug-ins – which can help automate or otherwise facilitate adoption of some of these practices.

Present the following tools, explaining how each of them works, and remember to also share the links to download them with participants. It is essential that participants understand why each of the tools shared is important and useful; if not explained clearly, it can lead to participants making ill-informed decisions about their privacy or anonymity online.