I think it’s kind of sad that we need to ask the question of what got you into privacy, as opposed to what caused you to give up your privacy. I understand why we must the question, but it’s still sad to me. This is my answer, by the way. Because we need to ask “why privacy”, is the reason I want privacy.
When I had reddit (deleted a few years ago), I posted a screenshot of my android launcher, and someone pointed out that I was using google apps, and said “protect your privacy”, he gave me some resources and that’s where it all clicked for me. What a nice guy.
The start was wanting to reduce my exposure to recommendation algorithms. That got me thinking about what absurd amounts of very intimate data companies have about us, and how they can use that to influence people.
For me, it was an advertisement in my gmail for something my spouse had searched for on a separate computer that I had never logged on to. I don’t recall what it was, but it was something like a new cookware set. It was odd. I started noticing it happening again with other people whom I correspond with for items I don’t need (dog kennels near you). I wasn’t on any social media except maybe YouTube.
Later, I started reading about the profiles companies keep, how you have no control over what is collected, for how long or if you want it to stop. I found myself using the computer less and less, feeling uncomfortable being watched if I looked up medical symptoms or just shopping around for things.
My family would show how cool it is that Google knows when you have a doctor appointment and where you are and what traffic is doing so that you need to leave in 10 minutes to get there on time. I found it creepy.
I awoke to see cameras everywhere, tracking cookies, apps tracking me for no reason. People willingly putting spy cameras next to their front door, pointing directly at my bedroom window, where I walk, sending data to Amazon. I started reading how it’s their data and they’ll willingly turn it over to anyone who asks or pays for it. I read about a guy who was arrested (and later released after hiring an attorney with his own money) for being near a home where a murder occurred, unbeknownst to him.
I have nothing to hide, but I have everything to hide. Now mind your own business!
I’m gay and didn’t want people to know when I was younger. I think everybody who says they have nothing to hide has either not thought very deeply about what they may want to keep to themselves or does not understand the principle that people should only ever know about you what you want to share with them.
Also, if being an open book is the norm, everybody with good reasons to not be completely open (like I used to be) will eventually stand out from the crowd. Keeping everybody else’s private stuff private also means you can keep your own stuff private.
There’s a great quote from Snowden about the right to privacy you can look up here. Excerpt from the page:
"people saying they don’t care about rights to privacy because they ‘have nothing to hide’ are no different than people saying ‘I don’t care about freedom of speech because I have nothing to say’ "
Yepppp, as a teenager I was terrified to look at trans resources partly because what if I was caught.
If you don’t have anything to hide you may not have anything to fear (except for being mistakenly identified), but nobody said you get a say in whether or not you have anything you need to hide.
Yeah, people who think they have nothing to hide enjoy maximum privilege: No one ever wanted to use knowledge about them against them. At least not for long enough that they realized telling everybody everything isn’t smart.
I am out to my family but I noticed that the nest display at my parents home would suggest LGBTQ+ related searches when I would talk to them. That would have terrified me when I was in the closet. I could only imagine what it’s like in a household that isn’t accepting
For a while Google+ recommended content that your friends liked or interacted with. I once got a Google Play app recommendation that highlighted the review a friend of mine posted on it. I was TERRIFIED that it did that by default and spend the rest of the day going through ALL settings on ALL online services that allowed connecting with friends in any way. Also, you could go to my youtube profile and could publicly see what videos I liked. A friend asked me about it and I was mortified!
I am also german. Of course not everyone here cares about privacy, but in average much more people than in other countries I would say. But the “average german” uses FB and WhatsApp. However, many like me never had them installed.
I think it’s because of our recent history full of spying secret services (Nazis and east germany) and the education in family and in school about the history. My family is from East germany. The stasi (east german secret service) observed everyone they could with hidden microphones in private rooms, reading your lettters, force your friends to spy on you etc. So the people that raised me are very aware of spying… From my grandparents and parents stories I cared about privacy from the beginning. My parents also used Linux since I remember them using computers and gave us phones with lineage etc… …
Of course we do, but for example we use nicknames on Facebook and our government shot down the real name verification they were pushing.
Data privacy acts are actually enforced, and most users are at least somewhat informed about GDPR and their rights.
Meta is not allowed to link facebook and whatsapp user data to get around that, so the data gathered within whatsapp is not nearly as powerful as the connection between the two would be (three, if you count Instagram), etc. etc.
Then do not use them. Use anonymous apps instead: Session, WireMin, SimpleX, Damus. I personally prefer WireMin because it has secret groups. Only members know I exist.
I used Session before switching to WireMin. It’s a good choice for a private messenger, but not an app I would use daily.
I have a personal blog on WireMin, so I can post whatever I want. And I think they made interaction much easier, cuz I can explore public chat rooms and other people’s blogs in the discovery section, which give me more stuff to do on the app.
This is the chat space on WireMin I like to check out daily, people usually talks about privacy news there. i.wiremin.com/invite/?g=k50898835053
For me it was a convergence of things all at the right moment: Edward Snowden just happened, I just bought a new phone (to experiment with) and I saw a comment on Reddit detailing some privacy tips/tricks which made it seem very easy to get on board
Homeland, right? I read it too - it was pretty good but that was so many years ago. Only until recently did I realize that he’s a commentator on internet privacy.
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