Privacy Basics: Protect Your Data | Data Trail Timeline

• Preparation

  Learning Progression

  In this lesson, your learners will:

  1. Discuss different ways people can oberseve them online and offline.
  2. Brainstorm their individual data trail timelines to see the privacy descisions they face every day.
  3. Map or otherwise model their data trail timelines.
  4. Reflect on their learning.

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  You should...

  Do the activity on your own to see how each piece works.

  Prepare your own model data trail timeline to share with learners as a mentor text, or example, for what they can build. If you have time, make your data trail timeline using a few different media so learners can see what a poster product might look like next to a slide deck or short video.

• Introduction

  10 minutes

  Expain to your learners that today you'll each make a "data trail timeline." A data trail timeline is like a list of all the times and places someone online could collect information about what you're doing online and where you are in the real world.

  Ask volunteers for 3-5 ways they most often communicate online. Make a list on a whiteboard, piece of poster paper, projected note-taking document, or shared document.

  Next, ask the whole group who else could keep track of those different ways we communicate. For example, ask them how many companies might be involved in sending a text or using an app on a phone, and then ask your learners if they think it's likely any of those companies are paying attention to their habits or messages. Ask your learners how or why they think so, as well.

  Then, show your learners this example data trail timeline in list form from the Office of the Privacy Comissioner of Canada. Share a link to the list in a way that makes it most accessible for your learners if they want to follow aliong. Review the first 8-10 items and ask learners what they notice about the list or what surprises them about it.

  Finally, ask them if they think they could make a list like this themselves based on this example. Tell them that brainstorming a list like this and making some kind of map, poster, or other visualization from it is what they'll do today.

• Brainstorm Your Data Trail Timeline

  10 minutes

  Next, ask learners to brainstorm a list of all the ways they might appear online during the day. This should include the ways they communicate on connected devices, as well as all the times they might buy something online or with a credit or debit card, and all the times a security camera or other device might "see" them moving in the real world.

  Remind learners not to share too much personal information as they brainstorm. They should pick items they wouldn't mind sharing with their peers later in the activity.

  Pass out paper for learners to use for note-taking during their brainstorms.

  Post this template in way that makes it most accessible to your learners. They should complete it for each item they brainstorm for their data trail timeline.

  1. What did I do?
  2. When did it happen?
  3. Who might notice online?
  4. What could they find out about my online habits?
  5. What could they find out about where I am in the real world?

  Give learners about 10 minutes for the brainstorm and ask them to generate 8-10 items to include in their data trail timeline.

• Create a Data Trail Timeline

  20 minutes

  After brainstorming, learners should turn their lists into visualizations of their personal data trail timelines.

  If you've made an example or two to share with the group, now's the time to do so.

  The big idea is to turn each learner's brainstormed list into some kind of sequential, narrative timeline of the ways they act online that others can track during any given day so that all of your learners realize how public their habits and whereabouts can be. If they understand that, thet can take care to manage their privacy and make personal choices about how to communicate, act, and move around online and off.

  Be sure to invite learners to make their timelines any way they want, so long as each timeline tells the story of its makers' data trail

  Again, remind learners not to share too much personal information in their timelines. They should include items they are willing to share with the group later in the activity.

  Learners might make:

  • Board games on poster paper (perhaps using online templates for inspiration).
  • Maps on poster paper (these could be like mind-maps, neighborhood maps, or subjective maps).
  • Online maps with pins representing stops on the data trail timeline.
  • Online slide decks.
  • Online comics or zines.
  • Offline comics or zines (drawing on templates like these).
  • Online videos using a service like Powtoon.

  Encourage learners to think of these drafts as prototypes - something to create quickly with the time that's left for this step. You can expand the activity later to give them more time to complete and iterate their timelines if you'd like.

  With the last few minutes left in this step, invite learners to share their work with their neighbors or to take a "gallery walk" around the room to see their peers' timelines.

• Reflection and Assessment

  5 minutes

  Finish today's lesson by facilitating a brief, reflective discussion of what your learners discovered about their own data trail timelines. Use the questions below or create your own. You can record learners' responses for the purposes of assessment, but be sure to use technologies that allow them their fullest range of expression.

  • What did you learn about your own data trail timeline today? What surprised you about it?
  • Should companies that sell us phones, apps, and ads have the right to track what we do with those devices and services? Why or why not?
  • What kinds of information seems useful to share with companies?
  • Would you ever accept a free phone or free app in return for sharing personal information with the company that made it? Why or why not?
  • In your own words, how might you explain the idea of a data trail timeline and what it can teach you about your privacy habits to a friend or family member?

  Curious to learn more about strong online safety habits? Check out this Privacy & Security Toolkit.

  Next activity→Privacy Coach

• 6. Optional: Badging

  You will create a timeline on a poster or in a video or slideshow to demonstrate how information about your movement in the real world gets collected online by companies and other organizations throughout the course of a typical day while learning about web literacy skills like protect.

  Steps to complete this task:

  1. Brainstorm a list of all the ways you might appear online during the day (e.g. purchasing something online).
  2. Create a sequential, narrative timeline of the ways you act online in a given day that others can track. This is your “data trail timeline” and should help you visualize how public your habits and whereabouts may be.
  3. Use one of the methods here, such as a comic or zine, video, board game, or online map to create your data trail timeline.

  Evidence:

  Share a link to your data trail timeline or upload a photo of it.

  21st Century Skills:

  If you successfully complete the above, you will practice the following skills:

  • Problem solving

  The skills that you have learned through this activity can be recognized and validated by earning credentials or badges.

  Through a partnership with the Open Badges Academy (OBA), you can earn over 15 Web Literacy and 21st Century Skills credentials or badges. Once you earn them, you can share the credentials/badges via your social media or resume or use them to connect with others.

  If you are interested in applying for badges, visit the OBA and/or reach out to Matt Rogers or DigitalMe to schedule a demonstration.