We can notice sometimes that what we do is in fact reactions and not based on strategies which are previously set, not only in our personal lives but also in our daily work life.

“I lost my phone, what should I do? My life is ruined! All my intimate photos are on it! I also use the gay dating apps! I save my contacts according to which application I met them through (Omar Grindr, Marwan Tinder……) whoever stole it could now blackmail me and the many more people.”

Our personal security is in many cases connected to others like the example of the young man whose phone was stolen from him. We must protect ourselves from the people who want to set us p or harm us. In light of the laws which discriminate against the LGBTIQ people in the MENA region, a lot of people hesitate in reporting threats in fear of having the case turn from robbery or harassment to a case of illegal homosexual practices and they end up in jail when the assaulter free.

To secure a phone is not very hard. Also, if a phone got stolen, we can find it by using the Google technology if it was an Android phone, whereas if it was an iPhone we could track it by visiting the page intended for that. WE could control the phone remotely and delete all the data on it but the phone must be connected to the internet. We should always remember to activate this feature on our phones.

We often hear the saying “Prevention is better than the cure” and we started mocking it although we know its importance; yet it had been exhausted. Making the time to secure our cellular electronic devices saves us the trouble of having to worry in case anything undesired happened or unplanned for.

We always think that accidents won’t happen to us and that we are never in danger. We speed when driving and become reckless, knowing that, accidents don’t always depend on our mistakes alone, but they take other drives’ mistakes and a fraction of a second.

“I was sleeping when my brother came in and used my phone without my consent or knowledge, and was able to obtain a lot of information about my private life which I keep hidden from my family…”

This scenario is all too familiar to reality. It also happens too often, although it is easily manageable to prevent it. The solution is to set a password for the phone, preferably not a pattern to draw but a password consisting of letters and numbers. We could also share the phone without sharing the private data on it.

“Everyone at work knew I watch gay porn, I don’t know how!!”

Yes, there are a number of possibilities for this. The internet provider can know the pages we surf on the internet. So if we were at work, the person who controls the router can see what pages we are surfing and what files we are uploading to our phones, unless we were using VPN or https.

We need to understand that the internet is connected with itself and complex, which endangers us because of those who take advantage, blackmail and threaten us. Therefore, we can protect ourselves by making the time for digital security and immunity from these people.

B.S.