Take Back the Tech! But know the risks first

Like any tool, ICTs can be tremendously useful, but dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. This is doubly true for activists and women's rights defenders. Jennifer Radloff and Erika Smith spoke to participants from one of our secure online communications for women human rights defenders workshops, who shared their own experience with ICTs and what they've learned from the training.

There are a number of issues with online security in relation to activism - whether we are using mobile phones, sending emails, or if we are recording conversations and sharing them. How can we use technology securely for activism? What are the regulations or policies that could potentially affect those communications?

For example, the cost of communication via internet is really high in South Africa - so if the government expects people to access information around HIV/AIDS or reproductive health cheaply then they are going to have to lower the costs of communication. We also need to think about where people access this information: young people who don't have access at home, they have to go to a public library. In many libraries there aren't even books let alone computers. So what are the creative ways that they can access information and what tools (ie. mobile phone, village or school library) can they use?

And what happens when you go to the library and you search for information on lesbian rights and you leave the computer and you haven't shut down the browser and someone sees who you are? These are the kinds of issues we have to contend with.

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