What is privacy?
Many people think that digital privacy is for those who want to illegally download movies or those who intend to harm others. But the truth is that digital privacy is something that should matter to all of us, because privacy is not a human right — it’s an individual responsibility.
“Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.
Privacy is not the same as secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn’t want the whole world to know, whereas a secret is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”-Eric Hughes.
If you have privacy, you can choose what to share and with whom.
“Google, Meta, and Amazon want you to believe that you have a single true identity. That you can be measured, parameterized, monitored, and predicted. They promise benevolent assistance through algorithms that understand you better than you understand yourself, while slicing your identity into carefully packaged fragments and selling them to the highest bidder.”
– Gigi
Your Identity in Techno-Feudalism
Tech giants are the feudal lords, while the rest of us are peasants, working their land without much in return.
Every time you post on social media, you are essentially working the digital land of these platform owners — like a medieval serf. The tech giants don’t pay you, but your free labor enriches them: they extract your data, your interactions, and your behavior, which increases the value of their companies. The more active users there are, the more people they can target with ads or sell subscriptions to.
And if they want, they can block your access, censor your content, or even manipulate your behavior. We are not the ones using the platforms — they are using us!
This is a problem because we entrust all our information to large data companies, which profit from selling it to others. Every time you log into any website, you’re potentially putting your personal information at risk, since you’re relying on their security to protect it.
We trust these large companies, but they can have security flaws that hackers will try to exploit because they manage massive amounts of data. These companies’ servers are under constant attack, because hackers know the reward is big if they manage to break in.
And even if your data is kept safe, parts of your activity can still be sold to third parties that may not maintain the same level of security.
Privacy Breaches
A company called Cambridge Analytica misused personal and intimate Facebook data to micro-target and manipulate undecided voters during the 2016 U.S. elections.
The WannaCry ransomware attack was a major security incident that affected organizations worldwide. On May 12, 2017, WannaCry spread to over 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries.
In 2020, there was a massive Twitter hack. According to some investigations, hackers convinced a Twitter employee to help them hijack accounts.
These are just three examples of major security breaches and data manipulation — but there are many, many more.
How Can We Protect Ourselves?
First, you need to be aware that every time you use an online service, you’re sharing information… whether you like it or not. So be selective about what you share, with whom you share it, and be mindful not only of your own privacy, but also of the people you interact with.
Your accounts can be used as weapons to reach others. Attackers will always look for the weakest link.
Walt Whitman wrote:
“I am large, I contain multitudes.”
A single person is made up of multiple identities, experiences, and emotions — because we are complex beings. You don’t behave the same way at a nightclub as you do at a funeral. You probably don’t think the same way you did 10 years ago, politically or emotionally.
“We need the ability to gather behind names, symbols, masks, and the ideas they represent — using transient identities and wearing masks ourselves if needed. If identities are permanent and transparent, rebellion and revolution become impossible.”
– Gigi
You can have more than one digital identity. Try using different accounts, different emails, and most importantly… use different passwords for every service. If one of your accounts is compromised, the attacker won’t have access to all your activity or contacts.
Choose to use open-source software so you can verify for yourself what you’re using. Free software communities constantly review code — because they also use that software. This increases the number of eyes watching over the functionality and security of each program.
And if you truly care about your privacy and security, try not to rely on online cloud services for everything. You can set up your own cloud services to expose as little data as possible to external providers. Hackers always go after the least protected users. The more protected you are, the lower the chances of your information being compromised.
So, to protect your online information, you need to invest time in learning new technical skills, exploring new ways to work, understanding how software technologies work, and learning a lot of “nerdy” vocabulary… To truly own your data, you must become a Sovereign Geek.
Resources
The following documents can help you define what digital privacy is:
Articles on privacy breaches by governments and corporations:
- haveibeenpwned, enter this site to check if your information has been breached
- Hackers Convinced Twitter Employee to Help Them Hijack Accounts
- What was the WannaCry ransomware attack?
- “The Great Hack”: Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg
Privacy protection tools
We will be exploring many of these tools in depth in future entries:
- Signal, opensource messaging app with end-to-end encryption.
- Keet, opensource messaging app with end-to-end encryption (it doesn’t require a cellphone number).
- KeePassXC, opensource password manager.
- Vaultwarden, opensource password manager cloud server.
- Cryptomator, file encryptor.
- Nextcloud, opensource cloud storage server.
- Tor Browser, opensource privacy-oriented web browser.
- Orbot, tor vpn app to allow the apps on your cellphone to use the tor protocol.
- SearXNG, opensource privacy oriented metasearch engine.
- StartOS, sovereign computing os.