Anonymize yourself: digital security and feminist practice of technology

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valentina pellizzer is attending AWID forum in Turkey. We share with you her blog entry published in genderit.org.

From the 16 to the 18 of April I had attended a pre-event to the 12 AWID forum that was focusing on the intersection between information and communication technology, Internet and feminist practices, and that was interrogating privacy and security in the online spaces and on our devices.

As the day passed I saw myself surrendering to the fact that there is nothing good in the laziness of a routine that prevent us from thinking about technological abuse that we as women activists can suffer and make the other suffering. When on the 18th April we had the feminist tech exchange I understood that I need, I have to anonymise myself.

Why, because the essence of freedom is to walk safely in a crowd without anyone pointing at you, without anyone able to trace me to my homes. I saw myself walking the highway of internet and been followed, filmed, recorded and I had to agree once for all that freedom is to be anonymous for the crowd and known only to our friends.

And yes, even do I am no a techy, I am a feminist which means that I do not stop to the awareness but go all the way trough taking control over and I want to be in control of my privacy and choose and name my security. Digital security from the perspective of a feminist user has nothing to do with the obsession of state and corporations about terror and terrorism, nothing to do with moralistic traditions that filter words and exclude content from the open space.

Digital security is about the security of my online body, the avatar of myself that write, discuss and click like and dislike on each of the issues that matter to me.

(source: genderit.org)