Do we really have our privacy?

All this contact tracing has got me worried.

Do we really own our lives and our data online? Even though the government says we are using contact data of individuals to help the spread of infection, at the end of the day the data can be used for various purposes. Making the app open source was a good idea but the government is running a different version of the same open source software. I’m worried because medical information is supposed to be handled in utmost secrecy by healthcare professional, who are supposed to maintaining the privacy of the patients. However, this now is being handle by everyone. I’ve seen the way data scientists operate and they are insatiable for data. So naturally there was an outrage everywhere to this decision, but isn’t privacy already long gone. I feel these programs and techniques developed for health surveillance is going to outlast the pandemic.

When we see emergency measures passed, particularly today, they tend to be sticky. The emergency tends to be expanded. Then the authorities become comfortable with some new power. They start to like it. - E. Snowden

I think, early 2014/15 is when I discovered this extension on my browser which gave me a detailed analysis of the data Facebook had on me, how Facebook categorized me. It had 30+ different variables from political preferences to sports liking to sexual orientation. Since then I have been more vigilant about my privacy and my data on the internet and have tried to eliminate the most intrusive apps and services. However sometimes I feel these services basically control most of what I do. I’ve given up on my viewing preferences, I watch what the algorithm tells me to watch, I order whatever the app recommends me to, and even though I know the route Google Maps is telling me to how to go there. I have understood that nothing is free in life. Especially on the Internet because something or somebody is always watching and is ready to monetize every move you make. Because you are not the customer for their product, you are the product for them.

Understanding that the general populous was getting vigilant they came out with subscription models. Saying that this way you pat for their services. Due to the same reason I have subscribed to a few different things that I think are worth subscribing to so that I can avoid a lot of intrusiveness into my personal life. However, the data crunching algorithm is always working, its just no selling your data. The day you stop paying them, then you go back to being the product.

People understood the importance of the data and have secured their interest and that most apps respect their, but unfortunately most apps and services let it be from Apple to Facebook don’t. Everybody collects data and uses it in some way or the other. In the name of privacy, there are a lot of new subscription models coming out that get more annoying and stupid by each day. They includes from everything from your music subscription to your shopping subscriptions to Netflix to YouTube subscription. Everything these days as a subscription. It makes a lot of sense because you are paying for what it is worth. Don’t be mistaken by an quotes or slogans the marketing department comes up.

It all stems from the fact that these companies need to make profit every quarter and keep making showing growth every subsequent quarter. So the keep coming up with “new” and “innovative” ways to make money. And the subscription model can help a little in delaying the inevitable breach in privacy.

The subscription model is like taxes more than anything else. Because paying taxes is just a form of subscribing to a country and its philosophy. Everybody chips-in to the pool in a progressive manner and provide an equal access to different services provided by the government. If we truly had a capitalistic society, would have to pay for your police, the garbage collectors, the public health workers, government officials every time we used their services. Instead of having cumbersome billing system every single time, we have a cumbersome taxation system. But I’m not a great fan for paying sub-par services if there is a better and cheaper alternative present.

So how did I reduce my online footprint

Number one is just being vigilant about most of the data collection policies and practices of the major corporations. Have to opting-out of everything that I possibly can. I believe that the government should make all services that have an inherent privacy risk to be opt-in not opt-out. Because we are dumb as a collective species in such matters.

Second when it comes to the systems that you used in making sure that all telemetry and bug-fixing data must not be sent unless and until you consent for it every single time. For Windows, I use a debloater program called Windows10Debloater, which has made my life much easier in terms of reducing the data that Microsoft collects form me and also helps with improving performance. At the same time I use a privacy centric web browser like Firefox true to reduce a lot of these intrusive cookies, fingerprinters, crypto-miners etc. I have tried using Linux, but you realized that I’ve been enslaved by the ecosystem of Microsoft. It is difficult for me to go to Linux and use everything there as my especially high usage of products that don’t work properly over at Linux. MS Office, Adobe products, and gaming are the major reason that in locked-in. Even though I know there are excellent alternatives for both of them on Linux but it involves a lot of work around and right now I just don’t have the time are the patients to setup and be guarantee that nothing is going to fail. On the mobile side, I used a rooted android phone for the longest time, but the advent of UPI payments single handedly screwed me over.

Having said all that, I use popOS! for most of my browser related work, use multiple alternative email-ids to subscribe, and use a lot of open-source or privacy driven apps and services.

Not an exhaustive list, hope I keep this updated.