Greetings to the American data collection system (or however they internally call it). And before reading this I want to remind you that the very log you left clicking this article will be stored forever in a data-storage facility owned by one of those 3 letter agencies with more budget than entire countries.
Probably you have listened from your old relatives things like “Having your phone with you all the time will get you Cancer” and just thought they were paranoids, and they indeed are; but they are right about one thing: Having a phone on you 24/7 is not the best move. (Unless you want your phone provider and the government to know your location 24/7)
Edward Snowden once made a question, “If you had to decide whether to let your friends be at your house without you around, or handle them your phone unlocked, what would you chose?”. This for me was a powerful question, I would pick instantly the first option and surely most of the modern day people would, our phones have become a part of us, we are already experiencing trans-humanism.
Your cellphone have more data about you than any other single object, in a phone you have the more intimate convos with your closest people, in your phone you look for those obscure doubts that you don't dare to ask nobody, in your phone you watch that fetishist p0rn that make you apologize to your grandma in case she’s watching from the heaven.
But your cellphone is betraying your confidence, just for putting a example, every single search you make on Google is being stored in their servers, EVEN THE ONES MADE ON INCOGNITO MODE. (and based on government agents leaks, any data collected by private companies is also being collected by the government, at least the US one), later used for targeting ads towards you, no matter the nature of your search. That time you searched “How to suicide painlessly” and a random ad showed you Sleeping pills were at sale, well it was no coincidence, it was algorithmic cynicism. (If you found this relatable, I wanna tell you I’m glad you stayed :)… unless you are an asshole)
And do not marry with the example I have given, any private company offering a free service is likely storing your data and using THAT for making profits, even if it is paid, unless the service you are using (email, social media, VPNs, streaming, etc) is open source, you can’t know for sure they are respecting your privacy, even if they swear to you that they do: for more on that, look for the ProtonMail controversy, I recommend the Mental Outlaw YouTube video.
But if you thought using open source services was too much, then let me tell you something, that won’t even guarantee privacy, because no matter how well made the program you’re using is, most of the internet is not designed for privacy, think of the internet as a mailing system: That Youtube video you want to see is stored in a Google server in California, and you are in London; what internet is, is a series of protocols that connect that Google “Server” (just a powerful computer) with your computer, using a direction, actually several directions(and a lot of cables under the ocean, yeah, it is not all wireless), and your house have a direction and so does your device; so no matter if you are using Linux + Firefox + Duckduckgo, in order to receive that packet (in this case, the video) you MUST handle YOUR directions, that finally identify you, not just your house, but your device.
What I mean by this is that the technology in which the internet work have flaws that will let whoever with enough budget to sniff what you are doing, the best you can do is trying to hide who is the one behind the computer, or encrypting what you are doing.
Clever minds in the world of Computer Science have come with ways of adding security layers to the awful internet protocols (awful in the privacy sense), for browsing the internet for example, there is a program called TOR, a program that will pick your request for a file (for example that YouTube video I just mentioned) and send it to a series of random “nodes” (to random computers that will eventually ask for the YouTube video in your behalf), so the computer that asks for the packet does not know who is it asking in behalf of, and the computer that picked your order and handled it to other random computers do not know what have you requested, but DO know who you are, remember what I said:
in order to receive that packet (in this case, the video) you MUST handle YOUR directions
You cannot get over the internet design, that's how it is made, the best you can do is working with what you have (and preferably, don't do shit that will annoy the USA in a federal level, because very likely it’ll be game over).
In conclusion, as the best advice I can give as just a newbie privacy enthusiast: Assume every single thing you do while connected to the Internet is being surveilled, all you can do is encrypt it or hide who is the one connected.
This was my first article, I don’t wanna beg for mercy but rather, if you have read until here, please give me some feedback, you can do it commenting or at my email: anzhia@protonmail.com
