DIM-01 Privacy and Security in a Digital World

Lesson Overview

With the development and acceptance of information and communication technology and services over the past decades, we are all in some way living and participating in a digital world. As we have been brought up, coached and guided to effectively live in the physical world, so too do we need to conduct ourselves in the modern digital world.

This new world raises questions about privacy and our rights as citizens. What is privacy? What information is considered private? As we actively engage in a society and an economy which is increasingly digital, can we do so with a sense of trust?

Every morning we get up and face the realities of a physical world. We eat, drink, sleep, commute and interact with others. We gain access to and use services we are entitled to use once we have satisfied the service provider that we are who we claim to be – we do this by presenting our physical identity credentials. We need to protect our identities to ensure we can continue to use services and that no one else can claim to be us and act on our behalf. We look after our personal and business reputations as we engage with others by managing our behaviour, and by being conscious of what we do and what we say or share with others.

Every day, we exist in, and have to deal with, the ‘realities’ of the digital world. We use our smartphones, or computers to login, receive and respond to emails, interact with others online using instant messaging, chat rooms, blog posts and participating in online forums. We login to get access to and use online services we are entitled to use once we have satisfied the service provider that we are who we claim to be – we do this by presenting our digital identity credentials. We need to protect our digital identities to ensure we can continue to use digital services and that no one else can claim to be us and act on our behalf, just like in the physical world. Similarly, we look after our personal and business online reputations as we engage digitally with others by managing our behaviour, and by being conscious of what we do and what we say or share with others.

Time Estimate

30 minutes