The Misconception Of Privacy

I am a privacy advocate, an enthusiast, and have been preaching about it for pretty much decades. The biggest misconception is the one that mainstream actors are pushing: privacy means hiding your data and activities. Let me tell you, it is not. Privacy means being able to decide what you want to share with others and what you want to keep to yourself.

I created this picture using Create Studio 4.

When we say privacy, we usually mean digital privacy. But there is an analog one, and I am sure you want to have that. Do you open the windows whenever you change your clothes? Do you go to the bathroom with the door open so everyone can see you? I bet (hope) you don’t. You don’t want people to see you naked, so you close the door, pull down the curtains, whatever it takes to be by yourself. You are not hiding; you just don’t want to be seen. And this is normal for everybody. Here is the part I just don’t get: Why don’t we care when the exact same things happen to our photos, messages, every bit of online activity, our location, and so on? What makes digital privacy different?

Everyone knows that we are being monitored; there is a massive amount of big data that just gets exponentially bigger. Algorithms are connecting the dots and making very accurate profiles of us. And everything gets saved, never to be erased. People know about this insane surveillance, the way data brokers are selling our data. By the way, this money is a very hefty sum. When we take the average of Dimension Market Research and Mordor Intelligence, then we are talking about 300 billion US dollars alone in 2025. We would be upset if someone were stalking us, taking pictures, and selling them to advertisers so that we can have personalized ads, but this is exactly what is happening online. It’s just unbelievable, in my opinion, but still, only very few seem to care, the others saying “they have nothing to hide.”

Guess what, you should absolutely care. At the very least, you should separate the things you want to do privately from the ones you don’t mind sharing with big tech. I have a YouTube channel, an Instagram account, and many things, but I still maintain my privacy when chatting or calling somebody. Let me list a couple of things I use.

Let’s begin with the Proton ecosystem. I have been using their services from the very beginning, since 2014. Their products are encrypted, open-source, easy to use, and affordable. There is a free plan as well. They have e-mail, VPN, Calendar, Drive, Docs and Sheets, Wallet, LLM chat, and just started with Meet. I am using pretty much everything from them, but I recommend using at least ProtonMail. There is one very important thing to keep in mind, though: metadata. Whenever you send a message to a non-Proton address, the message gets tracked and recorded by big tech. So either you send an encrypted message (a built-in free service) or, better yet, convince your contacts to switch to Proton as well.

People these days tend to chat a lot as well; for that, I recommend using Signal or Session. We spend a vast amount of time reading and writing messages, but we also surf a lot. For that, Brave is going to be the optimal browser. Not only is it a very nice browser, but it is built for protecting your privacy. It stops trackers and blocks ads by default; moreover, it has a private search engine.

Of course, you can go hardcore. I use Linux instead of Windows or Mac, and my phone has GrapheneOS flashed on it. But I recommend starting with messaging and browsing, then moving on to other areas. Trust me, you are going to like it. It’s way easier than it looks. Don’t forget, privacy means being able to choose what to share and with whom. So basically, it’s up to you. Choose wisely.