Is Privacy Worth It?

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Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!

Should you lean into it harder than you absolutely can tolerate? Probably not.

Let's face it; there's always going to be friction until we change how companies behave.

Yes.

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Well, the obvious answer to nearly all those broad questions is: "It depends..."

But I mean what "work" and "effort"? I mean using Matrix isn't exactly hard... You need to install an App, register for an account, think of a password and log in... That's pretty much the same complexity as with Facebook or Discord?!

Surely issueing big tech companies a blank cheque for your life is easy. And you get free services in return. But I don't think using privacy respecting services and even Linux to do your office stuff is substancially more difficult than giving away all your data.

It's one of those things where some changes can be pretty easy with minimal fuss and they work essentially the same, switching away from Chrome for example.

But some things are very involved and take a lot of work, and experience will suffer because features will be missing or the alternatives are buggier. Trying to switch to Matrix instead of Discord and Telegram for example was something I gave up on really quickly, it's just not there yet for me.

Lemmy is kind of in the middle for me, usability is generally as good as reddit, but instances are often slow or down so comments/replies don't post properly, images will load slowly, videos often not at all.

The more nuanced follow up, however, is that it’s only worth the work if you’re putting in the right amount of work.

Yeah...this is why I abandoned by privacy journey a few years ago. It felt like it took a lot of work, created hiccups for very little reason, and was overall just not enjoyable. But I was able to get Bitwarden out of it, which, I think, is a pretty swell privacy-focused app.

For those that are questioning what the point of the lengthy article is because the title doesn't help much, here's the explanation:

Imagine it this way: let’s say every time you stepped outside your front door, you decided you want to be safe, so you dressed head-to-toe in full combat gear, complete with bulky full-body kevlar, a helmet, safety glasses, steel-toed boots, and gloves. I can stop the scenario here: even for those of us living in the roughest places, that’s a silly visual because it’s overkill. To be a little detailed, it also goes back to that word I used: “you want to be safe.” Safe from what? The sun? Then just put on some sunscreen and a hat. The cold? Put on a jacket. Danger? Keep your eyes up, headphones out (or low), and be aware of your surroundings.

Yet, many of us do the equivalent of overdressing in our digital lives because, as I said, we don’t always see it right away. Most people can instantly tell when they might be putting on too many items of clothing. Even something as simple as a jacket – when you feel the weight and restriction of movement – makes you pause enough to go “how cold is it really outside?” With the digital world, it can be much harder to notice the added weight, at least for a while. This makes it easier to overdress and not notice for a long time – or to dress up in full armor except for going barefoot (like I said, inconsistent action). In the past, I’ve compared some of the easier cybersecurity strategies with locking your front door: it’s technically inconvenient but we accept that inconvenience because the dramatic increase in security and safety outweighs it. This is comparable to things like using a password manager and 2FA or making the upfront switching cost to another service.

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Once [people] understand the concept, they quickly start to realize where they can safely dial back to something less stressful without risking themselves and where they should instead focus more attention to improve. You don’t need the entire suit of body armor, you just need to put on a jacket.