Privacy on the internet has never been so dead, yet so alive.
In 2012, Edward Snowden unveiled the mass surveillance happening on the internet. We have never recovered since.
All of that surveillance is still happening. While there are efforts to curb it, it’s still done in secret. The scale of the internet and the progress of technology has only made surveillance easier. The pushback against surveillance is itself pushed back with even greater force.
I have never considered myself safe on the internet. I have been told by my parents to avoid revealing my name to someone on the internet. My identities were always pseudonymous. Being fairly shy and introverted greatly helped those efforts.
Let’s go back to 2012 for a moment. You’re probably using Skype, TeamSpeak, some of you still using IRC. I used to do that as well. Now I don’t. I don’t trust anything. My paranoia and alienation has only gotten stronger.
Right now we are much more informed on privacy and security. End-to-end encryption has become a common practice. I have understood that it’s only a matter of time until a data breach happens or a government introduces a backdoor.
We remember our happy, carefree times. Although, we must remember those times with a certain quote in mind — “Ignorance is bliss.”
One post that I have published recently talks about the stagnation of this blog. I have my reasons for that, many of which have to do with privacy.
I don’t trust my domain name registrar, and the privacy protections they have in place. A data breach is absolutely feasible, and I can only imagine the extent of the damage that it will cause. My privacy and security is on a tightrope right now. After my domain expires, I might not renew it, and pray that they won’t be keeping my information after my account has been deleted.
While some of you might logically come to the conclusion that this is oppression and driving people to self-censor, I am not of that opinion. I think we are in the progress of a transition to more secure, more private technologies, that curb this oppression. We have Tor, I2P, Veilid, etc. Certainly, they don’t have the same reach as of the technologies of today, but they are feasible and much more private in comparison.
We continue to use many outdated, insecure technologies. We should not be pushing to protect them. Let them be phased out. This is the correct path.