So, last time I mentioned that is is actually easy to do this. This time, I’ll be making the case as to why you should do it. Tech freedom (the concept, not the company) is the cornerstone of personal freedom, moving forward. Why do I say that? Look at the power to silence people Big Tech has… Twitter and Facebook can delete and disable your account, even to the point of blocking you from creating another account, but that is only the most extreme thing… the more insidious thing is that they operate algorithms to sort what they believe you should see and know. I’m sure that you have heard about Donald Trump and many of his supporters being de-platformed on Twitter and Facebook services in early 2021. This could happen to you, if you persist in speaking something contrary to the accepted narrative.
What else can they do? Well, the reality is that they, along with Google, see YOU as the product… YOUR private data and personal attention are the primary commodities that they trade. How does that strike you? Are you ok with constant surveillance just to use a “free” service? Each “free” account connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) is constantly using those devices to track your movements, conversations (they claim that they don’t record these, but how do we KNOW?), and internet activities. Is this what you signed up for? Well, technically, yes, you did, when you agreed to the End User License Agreement (EULA… that thing that everyone agrees to, but almost no one ever reads) upon account creation. That goes for Facebook, Twitter, Google (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Youtube, Nest “smart” thermostats, and Search are all tied to this), and Amazon (Fire tablets, mobile apps, Prime membership, Alexa, Dot & Echo).
That’s only the web sites and services that we all use to some extent, set to spy on us from the get-go. We want to trust our devices, right? We want to believe that Android, iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, and Windows are all benign, right? You can probably guess that I am about to give a resounding, “No!” Aren’t you? Well, that is the theme, isn’t it? Big Tech = EVIL. Not saying that ALL tech is evil, not in the least, but the alternatives to these platforms, services, and Operating Systems are something that we ALL should look into at the least. What about these OSes? They all have elements that track you, and or keep you tied into what they approve of in terms of applications. Apple’s offerings are the most obtrusive and closed-off of the bunch, but as I said ALL of them have elements that “phone home” so to speak, and report on usage, possible errors or crashes encountered, and who knows what else; this is called “Telemetry” and they all claim that it is essentially anonymous, but again, how do we know, with their closed-systems? I could go on and on, but don’t want to completely bore you to tears. If this has you clutching your pearls and you can’t handle the thought of figuring this all out yourself, check out my Freedom Consultation.
