PRESENT AND UNPROTECTED: HOW UNDOCUMENTED COMMUNITIES NAVIGATE PRIVACY ONLINE

Abstract

This thesis asks how undocumented and mixed status people in the United States think about privacy and safety when they use social media and other digital platforms. I focus on public online conversations where users ask questions like whether they should delete old accounts, hide posts, or separate identities. I also observe whether others answer with advice, warnings, or personal stories. Using qualitative, digital photography, I collect and analyze post and comment threats from platforms, such as Reddit, TikTok, and Facebook to see how people describe risk, how they decide what to share, and how they talk about being surveilled. I find that privacy does not appear as a simple right or setting. Instead, undocumented communities treat privacy as an everyday practice necessary for self protection. While some users suggest disappearing completely, others describe strategies like staying “low-key” by keeping some accounts clean and limiting identifiable information. These strategies are not the same for everyone. Mothers, students, workers, and queer users are given different advice and are held to different standards about what “being careful” means. By showing how these expectations are created, this research adds to conversations on privacy and immigration by centering the voices of undocumented communities through purposeful and consent-first methodology.