Privacy

Public and private profiles

Besides the type of profile, every social network has settings worth reviewing carefully. The most important ones:

• Who sees your posts: "public," "friends," or "only me."

• Who can tag you and whether you approve tags before they appear on your profile.

• Who can find you by your cell phone number or email: if you leave it open, a stranger who has your number can find you.

• Location on posts: it's best to leave it off or decide case by case.

Why? Every open setting is one more door. For a minor, the wise thing is to keep closed the doors you don't need.

App permissions and data minimization

Cookies, location, and incognito mode

When the cookie notice appears, the buttons mean this:

• "Accept all": you accept the necessary cookies, the preference cookies, and also the advertising tracking cookies.

• "Configure": you can leave only the necessary ones turned on and reject the rest.

If you just want to read a page, the necessary ones are enough.

Tracking cookies, location permissions, and tracking across apps feed an enormous business: data colonialism, that is, the appropriation and extraction of data from people and communities (often in the Global South) by corporations, which treat it as raw material. Just as in mining a mineral is extracted from a territory, here your habits, your places, and your tastes are extracted to sell them or use them in advertising. That's why it's wise to reject tracking you don't need.

Location also leaves traces. Look at what can be deduced from the places a cell phone records:

Encryption, shared devices, and listening gadgets

Many popular messaging apps, like WhatsApp or Signal, use this encryption in chats. Conversations on other services, by contrast, are stored on servers where the company can read them.

There are other places where data leaks out:

• Shared devices. If your brother uses your tablet with your session open, he can buy a skin, write to your friends, or see your accounts. You prevent this with separate user profiles, a screen lock, and a password on the app store.

• Apps connected to your account. In the settings there's a list of "apps with access." Each one can read or post using the permissions you gave it. Revoke the ones you no longer use and review the list every few months.

• Smart speakers. They say they "only listen when activated," but they're listening for the wake word. What you say afterward is recorded and is usually stored in the company's cloud. Review and delete the recording history, use the button that turns off the microphone, and don't put them in the bedroom or the bathroom, where there are intimate conversations.

Sharing with other people: photos, chats, and channels

Your privacy also depends on what others post about you, and on what you post about them. Before uploading a photo where someone else appears, ask yourself:

• Does that person know I'm posting it and agree to it?

• Could it affect them (embarrassment, teasing, someone finding out where they are)?

• Are they a minor, or in an intimate moment?

This is related to the right to one's own image: nobody should spread your image without your consent, even if a friend took the photo.

No channel is a safe place for highly sensitive data: passwords, photos of your INE or your CURP (national ID number), bank details, intimate photos. A single screenshot takes them out of the channel.

A related idea: some people separate their digital identities (a personal account, another for video games, another for their future career). That way they reduce the damage if one account is leaked and they don't mix audiences. But it takes organization, and if you share the same data on all of them, someone can link them together. A good rule of thumb: on each account, put only what serves that audience.

Your rights over your data

Companies must have a privacy notice that says what data they collect, what for, who they share it with, and how to exercise these rights. Minors have reinforced protection: the processing of their data must have the consent of a mother, father, or guardian. That's why many services set a minimum age (for example 13 or 14, depending on the platform) and ask for your date of birth.

A privacy notice in plain language (one that a 14-year-old can understand) answers six questions: what data it asks for, exactly what for, how long it keeps it, who it shares it with, how to exercise ARCO, and whom to notify if something goes wrong.

Free services, security, and trust

Many apps are free: a photo editor, a social network, a search engine. So, who pays? The terms of use say so, even though almost nobody reads them. If a photo-retouching app reserves the right to use your images "for commercial purposes," the deal is: you give your photos, it gives you the service. Before accepting, ask yourself:

• What data am I handing over and what will they use it for?

• Can I delete it or withdraw my permission later?

You also have to balance security and privacy. A school that installs cameras in the hallways or tracks the school bus gains security, but monitors the students. Three reasonable conditions: inform families, make it proportional (cameras in hallways and entrances, not in bathrooms), and make the data expire (deleted after a short period).

The same goes for parental control apps: seeing location, screen time, and messages protects an 8-year-old, but at 14 total surveillance can damage trust. A good family agreement sets what is shared (for example, location on long trips), what is respected (private messages), and when it's reviewed.

Healthy use and serious risks online

Young people ages 12 to 17 spend about 5.6 hours a day online (ENDUTIH 2023). That much time affects the body, sleep, and mood. "Free" platforms earn from your attention, so they're designed to make it hard to put your phone down: notifications, videos that keep playing on their own, "like" counters.

Habits that help:

• Sleep: keep your phone out of your bedroom or on "do not disturb" at night; the screen light and notifications take away rest.

• Body: take breaks to stretch and look into the distance; avoid spending hours in a row without moving.

• Mood: if after using a network you feel worse (comparing yourself, anxious, or sad), reduce your time and adjust whom you follow.

• Notifications: turn off the ones you don't need, so you decide when you log in.

There are also serious risks, and they're handled with a cool head:

• Contact with strangers who ask for photos, secrets, or meetups, or who pretend to be someone your age.

• Harassment and online violence: insults, threats, spreading intimate photos without permission. They affect young women more often, and the blame is never on the person who receives the aggression.

What to do: don't respond to or negotiate with whoever is pressuring you; save screenshots as evidence; block and report the account on the platform; and talk about it as soon as possible with a trusted adult (family, teacher, or school counselor). If there are threats or real danger, your family or the school can go to the authorities. Asking for help is not a failure.

Go back to the beginning: Ximena could have had her account private, asked her cousin's permission before posting the photo, and refused to send her INE to whoever asked for it by message.

Summary