For more than a decade now companies have grown to the biggest companies in the world by spying on its users. Facebook, Google, Apple just to name the biggest have secretly and openly taken a huge amount of big data from all its users. Together with state supported institutions like the NSA, the data kraken is growing unstoppable. It is time to start being more protective about personal data.
In valuing the information I am giving away while using the Internet - my partner is probably the more caution one. She is setting good examples: never had a facebook account, using DuckDuckGo as search engine as soon as I told her about it and this year she is starting to delete her WhatsApp account because of the Facebook involvement.
For me 2019 will be the year I start replacing everything that I know is making money by spying my movements. And luckily the path is paved with some good Software as replacement.
Browser
As my browser I am already shifting from Chrome to Brave, which avoids spying on me but - to top it - helps me avoid getting spied on websites I visit. As crypto fan I also got a couple of BAT to support websites that enabled rewards in BAT. As search engine DuckDuckGo is set as the default.
Phone
This one will probably be the most challenging in 2019. I am looking at some of the offered blockchain phones (from HTC for example) but it seems their only focus is having a good storage possibility of assets with the phone. Rumors also note that Android will probably get convinced by their userbase to include crypto asset storage options into their software. Hopefully there will be operating systems supporting your privacy soon - most likely powered by blockchain.
Social Media
Steemit is my obvious choice. No advertisement - no data kraken. Giving "value" with my upvote is something that I start to miss on other alternatives. I enjoy that moment after two years using steemit still. And I appreciate it even more after the time. I continue to engage more in social media like DTube, steeve.app or other blockchain powered apps. As developer you can always pull the information directly from the blockchain if you want to get sure really avoiding the data kraken.
Chats
WhatsApp is going to get replaced by Signal, Telegram, Threema or other Apps that offer real encryption and not making money by gathering user meta data. This one is also a tough one, it involves convincing many parties that you value to switch in order to really delete the old messenger. But it is a challenge I hope the vibe of 2019 will help me with. I expect there will be more stories about data breaches making the news of 2019 and waking people up.
If you know any Apps or Software - leave a comment and maybe a sentence about it. I am eager to learn about good choices.
Good and timely post, thanks. The word spying is perhaps a bit harsh. The deal that Google, for example, offers is "free software for your data". I have been writing software from the early 80ties all through 2016 (when I realized that others do it much better) and IMO, Google has delivered first-class software. So in retrospect the deal was probably OK for many years. But NOW it is definitely time to change behavior and use alternative services. So I am fully with you here.
Thanks for your valuable comment.
Spying for me is the difference of company behavior between collecting user data for improving user experience or implementing trackers in ads, browsers, software or other means to follow where people are going constantly and making money by that.
Even if I am not on a google website or using a google software, browsing a website with a google ad makes me trackable to them.
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Good post more people need to become more vigilant about allowing their data to be exploited. I think TVs need to be looked at for privacy. Now many people have smart TVs connected to the internet 24/7. Samsung has already been accused of creating a surveillance device and made the camera built into the screen so that you could not put a bandaid over it. I might look into this more and see what I come up with.
Good catch. I am also a fan of Orwells literature and that is why I am always avoiding to get a TV with camera or microphone :D
That development is also something that catches my attention.
Excelente , Me encanto tu publicacion, Ya que las App como lo son el Facebook, Google, Youtube pueden ser manipuladas por personas con un conocimiento avanzado de informática hace unos 2 meses atrás me paso algo : Estaba en mi teléfono viendo google play y descargue una aplicación que parecía como un juego entonces después que se descargo cuando lo intente abrir la pantalla se me quedo colgada y el teléfono no respondió mas pero gracias a este post sabre un poco mas que no debo meterme descargar aplicaciones que puedan perjudicar mis aparatos electrónicos, cuentas etc ...
Gracias por el feedback y compartir tu experiencia!
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