@Blaise

Blaise wrote:

1) Does e-privacy actually matter to you? I honestly question my sanity when I get an email about tech-bros/regulatory capture/4&5 amendment rights/whatever, and it comes from a "gmail" account where we can both be quite sure it's been read, stored permanently, analyzed, and appropriate authorities or fixers called about it.

In the areas that e-privacy matter to me I am quite able to handle that. As far as someone going through my junk mail in and giving me services that are useful for me in exchange for that, I am all for that. Hey, I am still trying to get the electric, water and grocery store to extend their services to me in exchange for reading my junk mail. Hell I I'll even through in my snail mail junk mail! I have my own email servers for business. Most of my personal emails I could care less about.

Blaise wrote:

2) Do you see privacy and security concerns as separate issues, or as stops on the same spectrum of data hygiene?

Yes, very much so. I can easily use Tor Browser on Tails and private email servers for privacy related topics. Security is a whole different topic. I am not a very private person. There is not a lot I care whether Walmart.com, Amazon.com or Google know or share about me. It just simply is a non issue to me.

Blaise wrote:

3) Would you support some kind of "guaranteed no matter what" system, maybe from the government, maybe not, to ensure that no one can be entirely removed from online life by a government or organization for any reason, at all, no matter the reason? For example, an online identity that must be accepted by any government agency or communications/social service that can't be turned off at a base level, so folks you know can always find/communicate with you, even if you get on the wrong end of a block. I guess I'm asking if even someone who (for some examples) offended a service owner, said "bad" things in public and became cancelled/blocked, got accused of being a bot, etc. should still be allowed to participate at least at a survival level in the 21st century, so long as they haven't done or said anything that caused them to be imprisoned?

I really do not know how to respond to this as I am not sure where you are going with this statement. Could you elaborate.

Blaise wrote:

4) Assuming you were too busy/confused to build your own carefully constructed personal data protection regime, would you consider paying an organization to do the heavy lifting about keeping your digital life safe? If so, what might that service look like, and how much might it be worth to you? Do you know of any existing services that for you match these functions in whole or part?

I will let you look through my junk mail, that is all I pay now and that is as much as I am willing to pay.

You know what really makes me laugh. Is when people use MS/Windows that periodically screenshots everything they do and sends it back to MicroSoft and then worry about their email . The idea of Google going through my junk mail does not bother me. The idea of a corporation screenshotting everything I do, now that is a real privacy concern. Why are so-called privacy advocates not up in arms about that? Every day I hear nonsense about de-googling from people using MS/Windows??? Why? If you are going to use an OS, that in my opinion, is spyware then why are you concerned with your email? If you have business to do online that requires privacy. I suggest taking a few minutes to set up an email server. If not and you are really sensitive about your junk mail accounts then I suppose you could use protonmail .

If you cannot tell, this really is not a major issue to me that I lose sleep over. I know how to keep my private business private and I do not care about the privacy of my junk mail. And let's not even get me started on the gimmick they sell as a VPN which is nearly completely useless in the way they deploy it.

@Blaise

Blaise wrote:

I may have a unique perspective due to my own situation, but as someone who two years ago was cut off from communications with perhaps 80% of my friends and family online because I was stupid and relied on Facebook without realizing it

I understand this feeling. The same happened to me two years ago and that is the reason I started Rogue Project's Friendica in the first place. I know the ride has been bumpy at times while I learned the ins and outs of maintaining a Friendica Instance. Thanks for hanging out just the same. I hope your experience is far better recently.

Blaise wrote:

, and subsequently discovered that half of my health providers and a number of government sites now require Google authentication and third-party software known to suffer regular and continuous hack-leaks to check in, it has occurred to me that AI failures, corporate bullshit, and even "cancelling" can all deny you access to the internet in vast, sweeping ways.

Fortunately this is not my case. I do not have to use Google to log into anything, besides my Google account of course. This is a real concern not just what I would consider privacy-at-a-paranoid-level .

Blaise wrote:

If Google did to me what Meta did to me, I couldn't pay my property taxes or even see how much I owe. I wouldn't be able to make medical appointments without walking through an office door. I could literally be cut out of most of the practical functionality of the 21st century by a single bad AI decision or stupid policy!

Again, I agree this is a legitimate concern. That also fortunately does not affect me.

Blaise wrote:

So, it occurs to me to wonder whether there is a way to guarantee that access, rather than living at the precarious whim of a network of monstrous monopolies. Maybe a guaranteed government id that can't legally be excluded from any organization that serves the public? Maybe just using the force of law to ensure something like OpenID is guaranteed access? Not entirely sure...

I agree with this completely and would support it 100%. No one should be locked out of essential services at a corporations whim. I would contribute to work in this area.

A little background on my perspective. I was an early adopter to Google, even though I initially hated them. That changed when Android was released. The idea was simple. Google is a marketer and everything they have done has been ultimately to serve that purpose. I had a Gmail when it was invite only. I read the TOS and I knew I was allowing them to screen my emails for marketing purposes as they clearly stated this. So early on I used Google, Yahoo, Hotmail (later live.com) for junk mail. Preferring my own servers for sensitive information. Such as doctors, schools, lawyers, business in general. Keep in mind I have used Gnu/Linux since 1992 (or there about) so it was always relatively easy for me to have my on email server and DNS server. Today it is a little more complicated as you have to have a domain in order to send mail to a Gmail account for instance. As they have special requirements that I found out about when setting up Sendmail for this Instance.

Back in the day Yahoo consistently provided better searches than Google specifically because of Google pay for attention policy. This really offended me. Though the release of Android was a game changer. I would not have ever been able to own a tablet of smartphone if it was up to Apple. Apple is a hardware company. The revamp open source code to produce proprietary systems for their hardware. If it was not for competition then Apple prices would have never came down to reasonable for the layman. Tablets and smartphones would be the domain of the wealthy.

Google made an initial investment of over 300 million dollars to produce a mobile operating system that they gave away for free. Anyone, even you and I can make a device, download the official Android source and compile it for our device and sell it with no royalties owed at all. This was unheard of in that era. Though I understood. They were setting up the largest marketing network in the world. Because Android Developers could get paid to include google ads in their software and a lot did. This made smart devices affordable for the average person they just had to be able to deal with ads or pay for the apps, but at least they could afford the device. Google charged me a 1 time $25.00 fee to become and Android Developer. Apple want $99.00 a year last I checked. So for the exchange of some privacy over my junk mail and knowing I am dealing with a marketer I get great service for many of my needs. I am willing to make this trade off. If you are not, then I am cool with that. Perhaps you have the resources to buy these services where I cannot. I am not upset with you because of that.

Google hired a bunch of staff from my heros from Bell Labs, such as Rob Pike, Brian Kernighan and Ken Thompson and many more! Google became a very respected employer of developers, much the way Bell Labs had been in the 70's and 80's. They support and develop tools such a Rust, GoLang and Dart. Many more as well. They have significantly increased the quality of my life .

I extensively use Google in my workflow. I can as easily replace them as you could stop using MS/Windows for work. It just is not going to happen. For one I pay less than $200.00 year for the 5TB backup and other tools I use. 99.99% of my use is on the free tier. But even if I used the paid tiers it is markedly lower than their competition. So no, I am not going to de-google anytime soon (as in never unless Google goes bankrupt). I know how to keep my privileged information secure and I can still use Google services in areas that I just do not care about. It is a personal decision and I do not get upset at anyone for having a different opinion than I have.