I use an RSS reader to curate my Lemmy feed, which means I see every post, including deleted ones. Every so often, posts will crop up with pessimistic content such as “Why try anymore?” etc. Most of the time these are a result of privacy burnout, where the individual has a threat model that is too strict for their own tolerance.
We all wish we have perfect privacy. We all wish the world could be more pro-privacy than anti-privacy. One day, that may be the case. For now, we have to accept that nobody can be completely private. Privacy is a spectrum, and doing what you can to minimize data collection goes a long way. You can’t become private overnight, so taking small steps like these means you can grow a strong foundation for future privacy. Privacy takes time, so take it as slow as you need to.
Even if a company already has your data or another means to track you, by minimizing you are making it harder for them to extract that data, and it increases the odds that your data becomes stale. By caring about privacy to begin with, you’re showing companies and other people that the data collection is not ok.
I’ve been a privacy activist for years now, and I will also face periods of privacy burnout. I handle it by stopping, taking a step back, and reevaluating my threat model. It’s good to take breaks like those, because it means you don’t push yourself past your limits and become burnt out.
It’s really easy to get caught up in the “breaking news” of privacy, too. This is more of a personal stance, but getting caught up in politics and news often leads to stress and makes it harder to make real progress. (This is one of the reasons I use an RSS reader, I can curate my information without stressful headlines.) You don’t need to use the most private software or jump ship the moment anything goes wrong. If you feel you need to switch, do it when you have time and when it won’t cause problems elsewhere.
Take a look at how far you’ve come, and realize that even if you’re not where you want to be yet, you’ve taken steps to get there. Every person who starts to care about privacy, even you, is one more person to help make the world a more privacy respecting place. It may not seem like you make that much of a difference, but it’s not just you. You and everybody else who cares about privacy makes a huge difference.
Don’t give up now. Privacy is an uphill battle by design, but the payoff is worth it.
Good luck!
Thanks for making an effort to support your fellow Lemmings.
Excellent post. I hope everyone reads this.
I’d like to reinforce your point about RSS feeds. I think that being in control of the amount and type of information that infiltrates your thoughts is a form of privacy that we all we need to exercise.
For those who don’t already know; one great thing about the fediverse is that you can follow hashtags via RSS. You can literally only see the things you want to see, if you want to!
That is really helpful, thank you! Any suggestions for clients? I like Capy Reader for Android, but how about desktop? Specifically Ubuntu.
I use Newsboat on desktop and Feeder on android. Both are foss 👍 If you dont want to use the terminal for desktop I would just use whatever is suggested for the desktop environment you use.
I use newsboat as well, though often feel like giving up on rss too—just too much stuff coming in even after unsubscribing to lots.
Yeah, the ideal amount of content to consume is probably zero. I’m starting to think that the best use of any kind of feed is news about very specific things you want to know about on time and literature which is released in installments.
If you’re a fan of the terminal, check out newsboat. Good ol’ newsboat.
Read/skim the manual page and check out some use cases on youtube
Burnout?
Privacy is refreshing. Get the assholes’ bullshit out of your business.
Yeah until you try to find a cab in a non familiar city while being offline.
Yeah I dont understand this.
Every now and then I open a browser without a VPN or extensions, and all the ads and tracking scare the hell out of me.
I would burn out on not-privacy
Great advice and thanks for the encouragement. This reminds me of one of the best pieces of advice I ever heard from a nutritionist talking about personal health.
If you can only do one thing to make a positive change, no matter how small it is, it’s far better than doing nothing.
I appreciate this post. I think you are right that those of us who value privacy and try to take steps to minimize eventually having those moments of having to step back and reassess our threat model.
Every now and then I ask myself why I resist the duopoly of Apple and Google, and the answer is because I value a third option. Like you mentioned in your post it may seem bleak now, but it might not always be this way. And if we ever do reach a more privacy conscious society, it was because all of us in the privacy community kept the flame going by supporting and using that more privacy focused third option.
Thanks for this very rational pep talk!
