Privacy Learning Center

Understand digital privacy, security, and sovereignty—whether or not you ever use our protocols.

Journal Foundation publishes education for everyone: students, organizers, policymakers, technologists, and people just beginning to question how their data is used. Start with the essentials, then dive into advanced topics when you are ready.

Learn at Your Own Pace

Browse the questions below and expand the areas that match your current goals. Whether you are new to privacy or refining an advanced practice, each topic distills key takeaways into an accessible format.

Why Privacy Matters

Explore the social, political, and economic consequences of living without privacy protections.

  • How does surveillance capitalism impact me?

    Advertising networks harvest every click, location ping, and purchase to build behavioral profiles that predict what we do next.

    Those profiles are sold to the highest bidder, concentrating power among a handful of platforms that can steer information, culture, and politics at scale.

  • Why is metadata exposure dangerous even with encryption?

    Metadata reveals who you talk to, when, and how often. These patterns expose relationships, routines, and vulnerabilities—sometimes more than message contents would.

    Protecting privacy requires minimizing both content and metadata exposure so adversaries cannot map your social graph.

  • What does algorithmic manipulation mean for society?

    Recommendation systems decide what we see online. Without accountability, they can nudge public opinion or behavior without our knowledge.

    Understanding these dynamics helps communities push for dignified, autonomy-respecting technology.

Essential Concepts

Start with the core ideas that underpin private communication and resilient digital ecosystems.

  • What is metadata?

    Metadata is data about data: who sent a message, when it was sent, how large it was, and where it originated.

    Like the outside of an envelope, metadata offers clues that investigators combine to map social graphs or identify whistleblowers.

  • What is end-to-end encryption?

    End-to-end encryption ensures only the sender and recipient can read a message. Services like Signal and WhatsApp use it to prevent eavesdropping by intermediaries.

    However, encryption alone does not hide metadata. True privacy pairs encryption with anonymization to obscure who is communicating.

  • What is decentralization?

    Decentralization distributes control across many operators so that communities can run their own infrastructure, as seen in the Fediverse.

    It is a powerful step, yet without metadata protection decentralized systems can still leak who is talking to whom.

  • What is anonymization?

    Anonymization hides the link between people and their data flows using techniques like traffic mixing, blind relays, and capability-based access.

    Journal Foundation focuses on anonymization because decentralization alone leaves users exposed to surveillance capitalism and nation-state adversaries.

Advanced Topics

When you are ready, dive into deeper explorations of threat modeling and systemic risks.

  • How do I create a threat model?

    Start by asking who you are protecting against, what they can access, and the consequences if they succeed.

    Design layered safeguards so that one failure does not expose everything you care about.

  • What is the 'Download now, decrypt later'?

    States capable of bulk data seizure and future quantum decryption can store encrypted archives today and decode them later.

    Minimize what leaves your vault, and assume anything stored indefinitely could someday be read.

  • Why is "I have nothing to hide" wrong?

    Privacy is about dignity, autonomy, and the freedom to experiment without constant observation—not about hiding wrongdoing.

    When privacy erodes, marginalized communities lose the ability to organize, heal, and advocate safely.

  • How does influence work at scale?

    Data brokers and recommendation engines weaponize attention to move markets and elections.

    Learning how narratives are targeted helps inoculate communities against manipulation.

Further Resources

Continue your learning with trusted organizations and Journal Foundation publications.

Advanced Topics

Understanding Threat Models

Start with the question: "Who am I protecting against?" Then map capabilities and safeguards.

Download-now, Decrypt-later

Quantum decryption plus bulk data seizure means encrypted archives today can become readable tomorrow. Minimize what leaves your vault.

"I Have Nothing to Hide" Is Wrong

Privacy isn't about secrets. It's about dignity, autonomy, and the freedom to experiment without constant observation.

How Influence Works at Scale

Data brokers and recommendation engines weaponize attention. Learn how targeted narratives move markets and elections.