For Migrant Domestic Workers
Immigration Rights, Employment Rights, Immigration Advice, Registering with a GP
Digital Privacy and Security Guide
About this Guide
Purpose of this guide
This guide is for migrant domestic workers in the UK and elsewhere to keep themselves safe and protect their privacy both online and offline. Privacy refers to how much others (such as the government, employers or even friends and family) can access information about you. We are also concerned with defending against “surveillance”, which is a word for close monitoring and observation by someone in power.
Key term
Privacy: How much information you want others (such as the government, employers or even friends and family) to know about you
Surveillance: Close monitoring and observation by someone in power, such as the government or an employer.
Our guide starts with some general advice for staying safe online. The guide then focuses on three specific kinds of privacy threat: government surveillance; online scams and strangers; and employer monitoring. These are the threats that domestic workers identified and described to us in five online workshops in May-June 2021.
Each section includes a summary of the problem, practical steps you can take to defend yourself, and further resources. We conclude with calling for broader changes which should happen to keep domestic workers safe. This is because we do not think you should have to be responsible for worrying about your safety all the time: laws, technology and employment practices should be changed to create a fairer and safer world for domestic workers.
Who produced this guide?
This guide was put together by a team of researchers at the University of Oxford and King’s College London, in collaboration with Voice of Domestic Workers, an education and support group run by and for migrant domestic workers and Migrants Organise, a grassroots platform where migrants and refugees organise for justice.
We produced the guide after five workshops with migrant domestic workers, where we discussed different threats to digital privacy and security and advice for staying safe.