MY PRIVACY MATTERS

We have all freely given up a lot of our privacy in the Digital Age. We use web sites knowing that each site collects data about us. We put things online, in public, that tell many things about who we are, where we are, who we are with, what we are feeling, what consumer habits we have, what we "like," and so much more. We use email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Spotify, Pandora, Google, Yahoo and so much more. Amazon - not just a bookseller anymore - has become a larger and larger part of our lives for so many of us.

For many of us, this is fine; we have nothing to hide, we get a lot of access and services for free or for a relatively small cost.  But for me, and some people I know, there is a dark side that has become less and less acceptable. I have read numerous articles and analyses about the dark side of the internet. I'm not talking here about the hacking, criminal side of the internet, but rather the companies, known to me and unknown to me, that see me as a revenue source, a container of data waiting to be harvested and sold. This has always bothered me, and it has finally come to dominate my view of the internet and how I use it.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to change Facebook in 2018 as a response to the role it played in the Russian hacking of the US elections. The problem Zuck has is that Facebook is a public company with shareholders, and anything he does that reduces profits will not be taken lightly by the shareholders.

Facebook isn't the problem; the problem is a set of concepts that include "social media," "sharing economy" and similar. These all sound terrific in an abstract sense; however, everything has a price or a cost, and every internet venture has to be funded somehow. For those of us who were around before the internet, its coming was heralded with unbounded idealism about how it would change the world in so many good ways; it would be free, open to everyone, safe, a glorious "information highway" in the clouds. Well, yes, some of this is certainly real, but so much more has been co-opted by capitalism and criminality.

And so... I am taking steps to protect my privacy on the internet. This will affect some of the ways I communicate with friends and family. It will also, hopefully, reduce the harvesting of my data.

Initial steps:

1. I will stop using Facebook, with the goal of closing my Facebook account. Facebook has some benefits, but I find that the down side outweighs the up side for me. I will post to Facebook the message that my Facebook friends can get my email address and phone number by sending me a message (a Facebook message if they don't have my other contact info).
2. I will transfer my email from Google gmail to Proton Mail. Proton Mail is a fully encrypted service (end-to-end if both users use it) based in Switzerland (including their servers), which has much more strict regulations of the internet than the USA. 
3. Google - this is a tough one. I am looking into the privacy policies for this blog platform that is a Google product. I do use a number of Google products all the time, so I will start by enabling as many of the Google privacy tools as are available. I already use Duck Duck Go as the browser when I am on Safari (the Apple browser). Our mobile phone provider, Project Fi, and our mobile phones (Nexus) are Google products. So yes, I/we are tied closely to Google, and I'm working on that.
4. Amazon - another tough one. I use Amazon for a lot of my shopping, and we subscribe to Amazon Prime for streaming video and other uses.  I'm studying this one, too.
5. VPN - virtual private network - I use a VPN on all of my devices. This hides the identity and location of my computer, and is a layer of protection from hackers. Some web sites will not allow me to connect if my VPN is on, so this can sometimes be an issue. It is invaluable when traveling and using a wi-fi mobile phone or computer to be on the internet. 

If you have any interest in discussing this topic of internet privacy, let me know; if we live in the same area we can get a cuppa and talk. Or we can use the telephone (what a novel idea!). 

I do hope to stay in touch with all of you. 

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