I’m going to say some things that many people might find unhelpful or offputting or irrelevant. I’m sorry.
I try to take a sort of foundational approach to privacy or security. First, I assume that privacy doesn’t exist in our world. We pretend that it does, to help us get through the day, but it doesn’t.
In a college creative writing class, we had to keep journals. The question of privacy came up. The professor told us never to write down anything that would embarrass us if it were found. That solves the problem. The best way to keep a secret is not to tell anyone.
I keep these assumptions in mind. I also read the Take Control Books on the subject and related web sites. Security researchers discuss assessing your level of risk. It’s individual, varying from person to person.
I don’t do anything personal on the internet. I avoid online banking and investing; I have no use for Facebook, Twitter, and the rest; I use ProtonMail, DuckDuckGo, Firefox, and security extensions like ublock origin; I avoid buying anything from Apple, Amazon, Google or Microsoft; I try to avoid putting my real name, address, and phone number on the internet; I avoid cloud computing or any kind of “syncing”; I use password manager, Radio Silence, and Launch Control. I don’t own a cell phone. I don’t give my email address to the many people who ask for it. I found a way to erase my house from Google Maps.
This is old hat to most people here. My assumptions prevent me from being surprised or disappointed at human behavior in the 21st century.
Usually.
I’m sure that ATT has information about me it shouldn’t. So does Apple, Google, etc. So does the government. But one can do only so much. The rest is out of our hands.
When people don’t recognize limits, when their behavior isn’t guided by some kind of moral brakes, they do whatever they can get away with—pushing until someone pushes back. The question then becomes: How far is too far? I guess we’ll found out in time.
