I am lucky enough to be travelling to the United States for a conference. 

I get to the airport early. I am always early for flights, and I have some work to do.  

You often see people at airports sitting with their laptops open, screens in full view, typing away.  I assume they are working on projects knowing about or that don't involve other people's personal data, or why would they be so happy for everyone to see what they are doing?

No, wait. That can’t be it. 

It must be that they think other people either aren't interested or just won't look.

Personally, I am of the opinion that we should always assume that someone might be looking, and might be interested, for reasons good and bad. 

No one except me needs to see my work.

So, when I'm at the airport, I sit with my back to the wall so i can't be overlooked and tethering off my phone so as not to use that tempting but insecure public Wi-Fi. 

And if I can’t find a spot that affords me that protection, I don’t work – it’s that simple!

Privacy screens can help, but to really be secure these need to have the four-way filter meaning to see the screen properly, you need to be face-on to the centre of the screen.

Earlier this year, at a different privacy conference, in London, I sat behind someone who was using one of the sessions to catch up on some emails.  No privacy screen on their laptop, and a nice big font allowed me to see that they were an employee of the UK’s data regulator, the ICO.  If they were a case worker and were investigating some alleged misdemeanour that is a very private affair, I certainly wouldn’t want Joe Public seeing that. 

And don’t think that I will let my guard drop when I am at the conference in the US later on this week.  Just because it is a conference focusing on privacy, security and risk doesn’t mean I’ll be sitting in sessions with my laptop open for all to see.  I won’t.  And it's not just because of who might be sitting behind me- I also think it's rather rude to type away while those who have taken their time to prepare a topic impart their wisdom from the platform are speaking.

So, I'll be leaving the laptop locked in the hotel safe and taking a pen and paper with me instead to make notes of important points I can garner from my esteemed colleagues in privacy.

As we travel and move around more post pandemic, we need to be mindful of our surroundings, who might be in them, and what they might be looking for.