Today at Pinngle we have the pleasure of hosting Alfredo Herranz, traveler, mountain lover, blogger and professional lawyer, who is passionate about the Internet. Our interview on traveling, keeping in touch and using Social Media in a safe and responsible way we present you below.
Pinngle: Alfredo, as we know, you love to hike in the mountains and travel. What attracts you the most in traveling?
Alfredo Herranz: When I make a trip I try to move in a direction to some environments outside the cities, little visited and that are not excessively touristy. I like to travel around the area by car, see its villages or small towns quietly, if possible visit peaceful and calm areas and have the feeling that I leave some things to see, to have an excuse for returning someday.
Pinngle: We at Pinngle strive to make our application work all over the world, even in the most distant places. That is why Pinngle can be used even in those countries, where other messaging apps can be shut down or blocked. What do you think, is it important to stay in touch while traveling?
Alfredo Herranz: I think that unlike some years ago, we want to be connected while we travel, even if then we do not do it. Yes, if we feel that it is necessary or vital, we can communicate with whomever we want, wherever we are.
Pinngle: You are an expert in the rights of foreigners. We think that being a foreigner in a new country requires a lot of strength and adaptability. Nowadays, social networking sites and public channels, such as those of Pinngle, are very popular social communication platforms and, in addition, contain groups with information on different topics of interest. Do you think that these means can help immigrants to adapt easily?
Alfredo Herranz: We are social beings and we want to feel belonging to a group. Many migrants select the locality where they want to reside within the country to which they emigrate depending on where they have their family or friends or some other personal references. I guess it gives some confidence to know that where you emigrate you already know or can meet someone. First to whom they go while looking for the information on how to act or how to handle something are people from their own countries or groups with whom they share the same origin. So a social or communication network can initially help to get that information quickly. However, the migrant must expand his relationship activity and communicate with other people, mainly from the host country, which will enrich him and make him progress in the knowledge of the language or customs. If the migrant is “locked” in the social network, it will hinder his adaptation.
Pinngle: We know that you give a course on the responsible use of Social Media. Can you explain to our readers what it means to use these social media platforms responsibly and what users have to do to maintain their security, and at the same time respect the rights of others?
Alfredo Herranz: In my opinion, responsible use of Social Media is based on knowledge and information. People think that knowing the social media is knowing how to post on Twitter or how to make friends on Facebook. Knowing social media is something more than knowing a social networking site. It is to know how Facebook collects our data, how the information that we publish is used by companies or will be used in a job interview, to know the crimes we can be victims of, to identify stalkers or sexual predators, and not to believe to everything that is told through this media (fake news). Let’s act with empathy, interrelate with other people and not be the authors of harmful behavior by ourselves.
To maintain our security, we should be cautious with the information shared, provide the minimum necessary information that we consider private and not share private information of third parties without their consent.
Pinngle: Tell us, please, what are the latest news in the area of law regarding the safe use of the Internet and other information media?
Alfredo Herranz: The Law always acts with delay, after the social innovations take place, on Internet it also happens, what occurs on the Internet as well is global and therefore affects many legislations. We can say that at this moment the most important novelty in this area is the entry into force of the GDPR, general data protection regulation of the European Union, that tries to provide a better protection to the citizen in a world in which more and more personal data is used by the companies and economic sectors. It should imply a change in practices that we will see if is just as deep as the European Union aims it to be. I’m skeptical about that.
Self-protection is becoming more and more important, as well as knowing the risks to which we are exposed and having good individual cybersecurity practices. Also for this, developing applications and legal software that facilitate the application of the tools that give us the laws and obtaining solutions, is what is called the legaltech.
