Privacy and security

· I reply to every message on Signal

I’m growing more concerned about privacy and security. Every conglomerate trains their AI models on your information. Each tiny corner on the web is scraped. It's mental.

Everything

If you ask me, ever since social media and the advertisement business model the internet turned dystopian. They've started tracking everything. Even the stuff you didn't know they were. They'll register who you message. And when. And how often. They'll track you across the internet from laptop to phone and back. Honestly, you can hide the pack of sigarettes from your wife. But not from them.

They know what channels you're subscribed to. The newsletters you get. What media you consume. The things that get you riled. They recorded the stuff you’ve said.

Are we okay with this?

I have nothing to hide

“I have nothing to hide.” If I hear this effin’ cliché one more time, I'm going to write an essay about it! Oh.

From these things, you've got nothing you rather kept to yourself?

You still here? Yeah. Scary. And we all act as if this is the most normal thing ever. Sure, you’ll have to trust some organisations. And we can’t do without in exchange for some luxeries. But this? This is madness.

What’s the worry?

“This information is collected. It’s scary but so what?”

I hear you. Let me share my concerns: The most frightening fact is that your information is stored in someone else their database. You’ve lost control over it. You don’t know what happens to it. It could be bought. It might leak. You don't even know it exists!

Sure, this information being available opens you up to identity fraud and targetted scams. Sounds dangerous, but you’re careful. No worries there.

However, your ideology and your political convictions are out in the open, too. And who you mingle with. The things you bought. Everything that is in the huge list above will be up for grabs at one point.

And there is where it gets dangerous.

Knowing this, a bank might not give you a loan. A potential employer might not want to take the risk hiring you. Decision are being made for you because of the information out there.

Are these examples illegal? Yes. Hopefully. Do the decision-makers care? Unlikely.

Consider the possibility that your actions become punishable by law. Do you trust today’s and tomorrow’s governments? Do you trust them not to blacklist you because you searched “VPN services”? No consequences of expressing your opinion on same-sex marriage? Making statements about a certain war?

Privacy is personal. It is the awareness that the more you give up, the better malicious actors can target you. Regardless that actor is your government or a terrorist group. Or when your government are the terrorists.

Think twice about what information you share with who. Who you trust. Whether it’s the company hired by your doctor to hold your medical records or the new app everybody uses.

How can you protect your freedom if you don’t protect your privacy?