Don’t give up on your data privacy yet, just be flexible who to trust
Couple of years ago I have written a lot of posts on my passion topic, which is the internet privacy. It has changed a lot since these couple of years. In the past we trusted, they were designed exactly as they said and did what they promised. Most of the developers however found out, that the product, that makes them most money, are WE. Our personal data, our device data, our behavior. Even the services, we have trusted in the past, turned out to be honeypots unknown time ago - maybe after they were acquired by a corporation, which allowed the original developer to get paid for the years of unpaid working on an open source app, that was loved by millions. But who wouldn't sell, if we were in their shoes, right? So let's not blame them.
Most people don't care and don't mind. Naturally. It is the same as with the environment, sustainability, regulations, foreign policy, human rights etc. - until MY house burns due to wildfire, until MY relative is politically persecuted, it is just a TV show. Same with digital privacy and security, only until MY email is hacked, until MY internet banking is robbed, I don't care about passwords, 2FA or quality of apps.The minority though is getting frustrated, because it is more and more difficult to find trusted apps. Some at least give up privacy and submit to Big Tech, which offer rather solid default apps in exchange for thorough data mining.
The others, who value even their privacy, are more and more frustrated, because they are finding, that it is almost impossible to really trust anyone. There is very little of good quality open source solutions and if there are any, they are acquired by Big Tech over time. Many closed source solutions over time turn to data mining too, because they learn, there are so few people willing to pay for an alternative, non-Big Tech app, that they cannot sustainably survive.
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Where does this leave us - we can't trust to those, we have trusted before. Well, the thing is we need to change our mindset, that we find a trusted app / service and are done for good. We need to be flexible with trust, be aware of what we use, notice changes in consents we give and be always ready to change the provider. Obviously people who love to hoard hundreds of apps will see this as challenge, but still there are some critical apps (including email, messaging, cloud etc.), that need special attention.
What's your approach?