Senior’s lack of familiarity with technology in Brazil and the scams they suffer OR how to boost elders’ proximity to technology?

To say technology is becoming more and more present in Brazilian’s daily lives does not bring up any news. It’s even less news to speak about the lack of familiarity some groups face when dealing with it. The only topics which are not mentioned as often are: the problems caused by this lack of inclusion or maybe what we can do to deal with that.

Being unequal as it has always been, Brazil does not make it possible for its citizens to be able to have decent internet access, even though this is already recognized as a universal human right by the UN. It is of the utmost importance to emphasize the existance of two constitutional amendments, both of them still being analysed by Brazil’s Congress, and the two of them with aims at giving such right the status of fundamental right, under Brazilian legislation.

Despite the fact we cannot adopt a unique speech concerning the expression “technology”, which possesses so many faces, we may still stick to the daily use of the surface web, which usage is so spread among us, the privileged class, the so called “Official Brazil” — just as native writer Ariano Suassuna would quote — to state that the masses keep their daily contact with technology by using their smartphones. On the other hand, a few of them do it so by employing their own PC’s.

Even when we speak about poor sections of the population, the use of the internet on smartphones may be partially possible, (at least for some times a week) through an open Wi-fi network in public spaces or even the illegal internet service sharing which happens massively in our country, very frequently. These are solid examples of the weak and very relative digital democratization within Brazilian borders.

Describing that scenario is necessary to think of the line dividing the wealthy individuals from the ones with very limited access to smarthings. By the way, wealthy individuals in Brazil have free and unlimited contact to various tools other than just smartphones, such as: virtual assistants, daily videoconferences and calls, possibility (at times) to work remotely, electronic games which demand top hardware, etc. That said, the great gap we have in between these groups of people is more than visible.

According to a very renowned local research institution (FGV), during mid-2020 there were 234 millions of smartphones in Brazil, an impressive number when compared to the residents in the country: 211 millions. Comparatively, the number of personal computers owned within our borders is only 190 millions. It is by seeing these numbers that we see a broader picture of how the smartphone has become the most democratic product these days, since there are cheaper Android options.

From the owners of smartphones, a great part of them are elders. Recent research data (2019) demonstrates resemblant scenario concerning the usage of different tools in order to access the web. Among people with at least 60 years old in Brazil, 58% are used to navigate from their smartphones, though only 8% of them do it from their PC’s.

It seems like most of them felt attracted by the awesomeness of post modern life, such as listening to old musics they like on YouTube, instant communicating with their buddies or even by playing Candy Crush, or even for professional issues they had to adapt to, but all of that without being educated about the appropriate handling of these devices.

The Brazilian Statute of Seniors (Federal Law n. 10.741/2003) defines on its 1st article the age of 60 years old as the legal one for someone to be called an elder. However, due to the average Brazilian longevity (75 yo+) it is correct to assume that this part of the population is likely to spend more time in contact with technological growth, so that they will have to adapt to that growth, instead of facing disadvantages (or at least facing less of these).

Pix, QR Code, Internet Banking, Social Media, Credit Cards with proximity reading, criptocoins, Virtual Reality… All of that may cause a whirl on Elder’s understanding, since they were born during a time in which most part of people would not spend days long connected to an electronical device.

Well, if even those who spent too much time watching TV would be criticized, how about today’s young people, who don’t get far from their modern devices for a minute without some struggle?

I am from the 1990’s generation, which is the last one to be considered “analogical”, but still in a transitory period of time. Even for those who had the budget to afford a PC back then, it was still necessary to go home and (just then) navigate on the web or to log in the “Computer’s Web” as the Brazilian Judiciary insists to nickname the web (I have never known why).

Nowadays it is not even necessary for the user to leave his/her couch and this extends to all of the elders who are a little more used to the usage of a cellphone. And since we are speaking about elders, who also make use of these devices, what is the level of their proximity to them? How familiar are they with its use?

I have had the chance, during my childhood, to have computer classes. But the seniors who are facing difficulties nowadays, when using smarthings, can’t just turn to a teacher and ask for guidance.

They will not have classes on “how to transfer cash through internet banking” or about “how to prevent sharing fake news”. No. They will have to learn it all by themselves or maybe ask for the support of a son/daughter or (more likely) their grandchildren.

Back in the late 90’s it was possible for one to perceive such gap, but at that moment technology was not as present in our daily lives as it is nowadays, making the internet a much less democratic space, as well as much less atractive. Now that more and more elders have become regular internet users, it is hard for them to keep track of so much information and be aware of safety measures at the same time.

By benefiting from this lack of proximity/familiarity, scammers make use of social engineering in order to have access to the data from many of these users and practice all sorts of crimes. By the way, such practice may be labeled as “phishing”, since the scammer’s intention is to “fish out” vital and private information from their victims.

Being the second heaviest user of WhatsApp in the whole world (current 99 million of users a month — data from 2019) it should be expected that we faced the growth on crime rates of this kind, mostly against seniors and first time internet users.

I would say the cause for this allarming crime rate is the absence of digital education, the inexistance of a minimum knowledge concerning the do’s and dont’s when on the web.

According to Wikipedia (I’m lucky) “digital literacy” refers to:

“an individual’s ability to find, evaluate, and compose clear information through writing and other media on various digital platforms. It is evaluated by an individual’s grammar, composition, typing skills and ability to produce texts, images, audios and designs using technology”.

I believe we could go beyond and say it is not enough for the user to get used to texts/pictures/interfaces from the most common programs/apps, he/she should also keep in mind the precautions one must adopt as to reduce inherent risks to being online.

Well, if the senior person is aware he/she should not allow strange people to help them during the time they’re using an ATM machine, due to the risk of sharing their data/suffeing scams, why would the web be any different? There are probably much more scammers nowadays on the web rather than in physical spaces.

According to the ISO/IEC 27001 (Standards about information security management) there is a sequence of events which could lead to an event of data breach, whether involving an individual or an enourmous organization/entity from public or private areas. In a comparison to the daily struggles faced by an elder when learning how to deal with their smartphones, the sequence behaves like this: threat => vulnerability => risk => incident/data breach.

Threat: malicious individual who obtains (say) the WhatsApp number from a senior and pretends to work for this company and that he/she needs to perform a remote update on the victim’s smartphone. This scammer sounds like a real employee because he/she uses specific terms and expressions which sound reasonable. Ther’s even the WhatsApp logo as his/her profile picture.

Vulnerability: speaking about the lack of familiarity many of the elders have with technology, with zero concerns about the fact internet users are always exposed to attacks, they are simply more likely to suffer from this criminal practice.

Risk: now, considering the expertise of the scammers on doing what they do and the vulnerability of the senior users, the risk goes way up. At first, the lack of experience with the internet leads unaware users to behave naively. It’s only by awaring users about the risks the internet presents that we will slowly induce them to a more cautious behavior.

Incident: at this stage, the criminal has fulfilled his/her criminal actions, leading the user to disbelief. The criminals have probably gathered some sensitive information and are ready to perform other crimes with that data. This is the worst case scenario, since avoiding data breach at all costs is a must, for countermeasures are (in this case) much less effective than acting prior to any attacks.

With that said, it is obvious we all (not just seniors) need to be more concerned about how little educated this part of the population is, since we have laws about it, as we may learn from the 3rd article from the Brazilian Statute of Seniors:

“it’s a primary responsibility of the family, the society and the Public Administration to assure the senior will have access, with absolute priority, to life, public health, appropriate food, education, culture (…)”.

If we pay a closer look to the abovementioned article, we will see that the first one responsible for fulfilling these rights is the elder’s family. So it’s up to us (sons/daughters, grandchildren and so on) to guide our seniors to adopt practices, which may be not infallible, a measure which will certainly help Brazil reduce crime rates involving them as victims, just like the online scams I have talked about.

With that in mind I’m enlisting some safety measures to be adopted, as a way to mitigate the risks involving information security (if you have some other suggestions in mind, share them in the comment section. I’ll be honored to hear from you):

1. Let the senior be aware about the fact the internet is a part of the real world. As such, there are as many scammers/good people as there are in the “real world”;
2. Remember all users (mainly Brazilian internet users) they should be suspicious about strange and random messages from strangers or messages containing unreal and strange information. In Brazil there is a very famous scam which consists of stealing one’s WhatsApp profile, in order to ask for money to the victim’s contacts by pretending they are the victim, so the user must never share his/her personal info with anyone;
3. To be suspicious about links on e-mails and cellphone messages, even if they have been sent by relatives/friends, it is really useful to get in contact with the sender, as to understanding what it is about. We are facing terrible problems in Brazil caused by fake news, and checking the source of information (when there’s a new involved) is really important;
4. This one is for sons/daughters and grandchildren: an interesting and very creative measure that I have seen frequently on Brazilian websites consists of drawing a tutorial in a notebook, teaching the senior the step by steps when using a certain app. People who have done this said thya had used at least two colors of pen, as well as they tried to draw it as close as possible to the interface of, say, WhatsApp or YouTube. You should take your time when doing it, because it may be a lenghty task, but it is worth to put effort into something which will be so useful to our beloved parents/grandparents.
5. Adopting strong passwords only, which should have at least 8 characters, including a mix of capital and small letters, as well as special characters (!@#$%). Another good practice is to avoid obvious sentences, such as first/last names, important dates (anniversaries, birthdays, etc). Most of unaware Brazilians think it is an exaggeration to care about information security, but we, data protection professionals, are supposed to convince them of the opposite;
6. We must inform our seniors they should keep note (physical notes) of their passwords and login, at appropriate places. What is the use of creating strong passwords if we will not be able to remember them all? I myself do that and since I have adopted this practice, I have not forgotten but one login/password.
7. Check on their smartphones as to teach them the very basic usage, just like blocking/unblocking by manual unlocking/ facial recognition, provided these measures do not make it too hard for him/her use the device on a daily basis. It may even be a little more comfortable to the senior to make use of facial recognition to unlock their devices rather than tying their regular passwords on the screen every time they want to unlock it.
8. Keep in their minds that when it comes to electronical devices, there’s no such a thing as a 100% safety measure, since there will always be some grade of risk. That being said, they will tend to behave more carefully and are lesse likely to suffer risks out of naivety or overtrust.

Now, regarding the technological inclusion, there is an important contribution made by the Brazilian Bar Association from my state, Pernambuco (OAB/PE). They have launched a project aiming at including senior attorneys, providing them with free lessons on how to use a computer/cell phone, as well as how to log in Tribunal platforms (there’s a different platform for every Tribunal in Brazil, it is really annoying). All of this so our society is not deprived from these bright professionals.

Stimulating technological inclusion does not consist of just donating computers and other electronical devices to the ones who need it and can’t afford it, but also supporting all of those who face hard times when handling technology, elders and non elders. However, since we are speaking specifically about seniors, I would say empathy and being there for them makes a huge difference.

Making jokes about the inclusion of elders and all of those who are not familiar with technology is completely counterproductive and is not even funny. So, if you tell jokes or make fun of people in that way, I would like to ask you to spend your energy somewhere else.

When we take time to help include all types of people to the proper usage and safe measures concerning internet usage, regardless of their age/nationality/political background, we help making the web a more democratic space, even when there are so many out there who think the whole internet belongs to them.

By Henrique Bandeira: Brazilian attorney-at-law who loves technology and privacy/data protection law.

Key reference:

1 — Notícia de 2011 — ONU classifica internet como direito humano: G1 — ONU afirma que acesso à internet é um direito humano — notícias em Tecnologia e Games (globo.com);

2 — Proposta de emenda à Constituição da República, tornando a internet um direito fundamental: Proposta inclui na Constituição o direito de acesso à internet — Senado Notícias;

3 — Matéria FGV: Brasil tem 424 milhões de dispositivos digitais em uso, revela a 31ª Pesquisa Anual do FGVcia | Portal FGV;

4 — Expectativa de vida do brasileiro: Brasileiro perdeu quase 2 anos de expectativa de vida na pandemia, e 2021 deve ser pior, diz demógrafa de Harvard — BBC News Brasil;

5 — Pesquisa sobre o acesso à internet pelos idosos: Idosos estão cada dia mais conectados, diz pesquisa | Consumidor Moderno;

6 — Ranking dos países que mais se utilizam do WhatsApp: Os 10 países que mais usam o WhatsApp no mundo em 2019 | TargetHD.net;

7 — A respeito da definição da expressão “letramento digital”: Letramento digital | Glossário Ceale (ufmg.br);

8 — Programa de Inclusão Digital de Advogados Senior, pela CAAPE-OAB/PE: Notícias — CAAPE — Caixa de Assistência dos Advogados de Pernambuco CAAPE.