The problem is that the so called privacy community is full of security LARPers that have no idea what their threat model is and in addition many snakeoil vendors trying to sell you (usually unnecessary or even counter-productive) VPNs etc.

So it's understandable that people get tired of these grifters and stop bothering.

privacy is always worth the work

As my friends and family have come to respect my lifestyle, they make a point of sending me videos, pictures, and other content that they also posted online so that I don’t miss out.

You have good friends and family.

I really appreciate privacy articles that talk about threat modeling as it seems like its the biggest part of privacy people miss.

I love my private lifestyle. I feel like I actually control my own life, that I'm not being held at gunpoint or dependent or actively surveiled 24/7 by 100 different soulless corps. it feels so peaceful. The parts I cannot control, like cellular, I always treat like an open public square.

So yes, when you just get into a routine, instead of making everything into a fucking war, it's quite nice. people who say it's exhausting try to do too much at once or just let fear rule them. Privacy, especially technologically, has honestly never been easier than it is now.

Privacy isn't a cutesy. It's absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, just like not doing stupid shit when you're a teenager, you get to find out how important privacy is years later when the stupid shit you did years before comes back to haunt you and it's too late.

The problem of course is that Big Data has made it exceedingly difficult and painful to maintain your privacy. Because of course the last thing they want is for you to have any. It hurts their bottom line.

Because of the corporate surveillance collective, in 2024, if you truly want to maintain your privacy, your life becomes significantly crappier than if you didn't bother. But that doesn't mean privacy isn't as important today as it's ever been.

I think the article was bad because it underestimates the risk in certain situations. Facebook logs everything. If you are a teenage girl who is 17 and use Facebook all the time, then turn 18 and get an unwanted pregnancy and live in Texas and then stop using Facebook while going to the abortion clinic out of state, or log in once while out of state with an out of state IP or using a VPN but with a much longer ping time or different data center that Facebook then logs (and to think they don't log ping times is naive), that information could be requested by Texas authorities to try to prosecute the 18 year old female for getting an abortion. Although that's not likely to happen just yet in 2024, we don't know what political environment will exist in the future. The idea that this is all meaningless for many people ignores the fact that terrible situations don't often warn you in advance that they are coming and sometimes happen fast.

Well, that was extremely long winded way to say "depends on your threat model". Which it does.

So nothing new under the sun.

That was an excellent read. I have often wondered myself how other people are going when I see them so adamant that they'll never use a mainstream social media/messaging service ever again and now refuse to be friends with anyone who does. I've heard "if my friends won't value my privacy, they're not real friends", or variations of it, so many times in privacy communities.

That is like asking, "Is breathing worth it?" -- well of course. Then again, folks don't (usually) care due to how most privacy-ruining methods/features are ... mostly (in)offensive and easy to tackle.