Digital Safety, Surveillance, & Privacy

Presented by PEN America, in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists, International Women's Media Foundation, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and the Dart Center

This webinar—co-hosted with Freedom of the Press Foundation—will be led by digital security experts Harlo Holmes and Viktorya Vilk of PEN America. Our cell phones and social media accounts may be projecting our location and personal information without our knowledge, which can be used against us by the police and by abusive trolls. This training will equip journalists, especially those reporting and commenting on the protests, with strategies to better secure their phones and social media accounts, including guidance specifically focused on cell phone surveillance and confiscation, as well as anti-hacking and anti-doxing.

About the Best Practices for Covering Protests series

Amid the sustained protests against police brutality in recent weeks, the US Press Freedom Tracker has already recorded over 380 press freedom violations, including over 50 arrests and over 200 physical attacks against reporters — the majority perpetrated by the police. In response, we have developed a webinar series to empower journalists to take care of their safety and well being as they cover the protests, with an emphasis on their legal rights, physical safety, digital safety, and mental health.