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Benjamin
Benjamin

Posted on • Originally published at darkshark9k.ml

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I care about privacy

This website doesn't track you. It doesn't sell your data or displays ads.
I purposefully didn't include any ads or trackers because I care about privacy.

I think privacy is a good thing and everybody should care about it. But I also do regret my decision of climbing down the rabbit hole of internet privacy sometimes.

The state that privacy has in our society is troubling. "I have read and accept the privacy policy." is the biggest lie of the internet.

How to achieve privacy

What is privacy and how do I get it?

Privacy isn't a thing you can have or don't have it. It's not binary, it's a scale where you decide how much privacy you want or need.

You can just install Signal to make you communication secure, but is it enough? That depends on you.

Incremental Change

This one is really important I think.

I see this so often and it's just sad: Youtube videos for "privacy minded" people that tell you things like "don't use Signal, it's owned by the FBI and they can read all your messages. Switch to <random messaging app that no one uses> instead."

Signal has it's criticisms - as does every single app or service that was ever created - that's not the point.
It's sad that such videos get recommended to people who just start out.

Those videos decourage people to even start their privacy journey, they may have valid points but the videos directly go all-in and overwhelm people.

Now comes the important part - write it down, print it out, just memorize it:

Incremental change (e.g. first installing Signal) is not bad. Encourage incremental change.

It's way easier getting all your contacts to install Signal then to use Matrix for example. Matrix isn't bad, but the process of joining it isn't as simple as with Signal.

Believe me, I've tried.

Until then

Until we have a society where everyone cares about privacy, just do a few simple things:

  1. Spread the word. You can influence the people around you, to join your journey of privacy.
  2. Go easy on them: Don't discourage their first steps.
  3. Let them have a life, it isn't all privacy. There are way more exciting and beautiful things out there.

I hope that someday the value of privacy increases in our society.

That said: Thank you for reading and I hope this post was somewhat informative or enjoyable.
Have a nice rest of your day! 🌞

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