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diff --git a/memos/WM-032.txt b/memos/WM-032.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acf749a --- /dev/null +++ b/memos/WM-032.txt @@ -0,0 +1,241 @@ + + + + + + + +Document: WM-032 P. Webb +Category: Life 2018.05.17 + + Decentralization, Privacy, and Everything Between + +Abstract + + Rah rah, fight the powah! + +Body + + This post is a combination of at least *three* different posts I + intended to write and publish over the past year. They inevitably + came to the similar conclusions and it makes sense. In my mind, + decentralization and privacy are mutually beneficial. In the wake of + exposure to privacy violations by Google, Facebook, &c to the general + public, it seemed like now would be a great time to share + my thoughts. + + 1. Privacy + + > If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're + > the product being sold. — Andrew Lewis (blue_beetle)[1] + + This oft-referenced quote was posted on MetaFilter on August 26th, + 2010. It's been nearly a decade since then and clearly, that quote + is timeless. The increasingly parasitic advertising industry is + fed by a never-ending supply of user-data gathered and sold by + almost every ~~online~~ ~~offline~~ service. Oh yeah, that's + right; you can be tracked ~~offline~~. The data gatherers are your + usual suspects: Facebook, Google, Twitter, as well as unknown data + brokers of which new ones are launching seemingly weekly. Have you + looked at the blacklist of your favorite ad blocker? It's + a *mess*. + + The aforementioned data gatherers are in the business of keeping + your attention. The visual redesigns, additional features, and so + on are not created to make a better product for your perusal. Oh + no, these changes are A/B tested and analyzed to ensure that you + spend as much time using those products as possible. Why? So that + app can send usage data and patterns back to the mothership to + collect your info to update their algorithms and sell to + advertisers for a pretty penny and the cycle continues. + + Before this year, casual Internet users would roll their eyes at + everything I've said thus far, `¯\_(ツ)_/¯`, and say something + inane like, "It is what it is." or, "I have nothing to hide." + + > Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because + > you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't + > care about free speech because you have nothing to + > say. — Edward Snowden + + Frustrating as those eye rolls may be, you cannot force someone to + care about something *you* think is important. I've been harping + on about privacy to my friends for years and some of them are + starting to come around. The tech (and mainstream) media's + continued coverage about the evils of (mostly) Facebook and Google + has become a roar too loud to ignore. + + FINALLY. + + People have realized (or are starting to realize) that they can no + longer depend on the kindness of corporations offering free things + on the Internet…when you think of it that way, it's kind of + surprising that we would think there wouldn't be strings attached. + Huh. Anyhoo, getting away from Facebook is *relatively* easy. + Ironically, if you have a lot of relatives on the platform, + leaving is quite difficult. + + 2. Cancel Facebook + + Your entrenchment level with Facebook varies with the next person + and most likely with me too. I'll share what I did leading up to + and after my leave from Facebook in 2016. + + 1. I requested a backup of my data. + 2. After downloading my data, I went to my profile page and spent + a couple days deleting posts. This was tedious as hell and I + never actually finished. I think I got through my first three + years and then my recent two years before calling it quits with + that task. + 3. I also deleted integrations with other services and took the + time to delete accounts with services I barely remembered using + prior the integration deletion. + 4. I told close friends, family, and my girlfriend (now wife) my + plans and why I was doing so. I have several family members on + Facebook but I also own a phone. I had zero interest with + staying in contact with people I knew from high school, those + were all passive "friendships" at that point. + + 3. Cancel Google + + Hoo boy, this one's a *doozy*. Entire livelihoods, businesses, and + lifestyles rely on Google in some shape or form…especially if your + daily mobile driver is an Android device. I grew weary of Google + long before my divorce from Facebook and I found an email + replacement in Mail-in-a-Box[2], a self-hosted email solution that + also has calendar and address book capabilities. For search, I use + DuckDuckGo[3]. I'm on iOS/macOS so Apple Maps is a suitable Google + Maps replacement for me (btw, Apple Maps is *fantastic* in Japan). + + At this point in time, YouTube is nigh-impossible to replace. + Nintendo doesn't upload their videos to Vimeo. MKBHD or any other + super profitable YouTube creator isn't leaving the platform + anytime soon either so it's a total crapshoot. I'm no longer + logged-in to YouTube but I still get email notifications when a + channel I'm interested in uploads a video. For videos I *really* + want to see again, I download them with youtube-dl[4], an awesome + command line program that is capable of downloading videos from + pretty much any video sharing site (not just YouTube). Here's my + configuration file (located at `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`): + + ```bash + -f bestvideo+bestaudio + -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s + ``` + + It automatically downloads the best audio and best video sources + for whatever video URL you supply and combines them to create a + single file. That file then gets saved to my `~/Movies` folder. I + alias the `youtube-dl` command in my `.zshrc` config so I can type + `yt` followed by a URL for a super-quick workflow. + + Unfortunately, Google Apps for Work exists and that means I have + not fully escaped their ecosystem. When it comes to most + businesses, familiarity and cost-savings often take precedence + over ideals. Make no mistake, finding (worthy) alternatives to + every single one of Google's offerings is expensive in either time + spent searching or cost for a single app. Sometimes both! However, + I think the upfront cost is worth the longtime gain. You will have + to be careful though. There is no shortage of startups with + compelling products that are merely skins on top of Google's + existing services (last year I interviewed for such a company that + I thought was creating a compelling email client only to learn + that it was really Gmail underneath AND there would be no IMAP + support…the conversation made our misalignment apparent). + + 4. Decentralization + + As my concerns about online privacy grew, so did my interest in + decentralization. The core premise of decentralization is + basically self-hosting any online service you may need, yourself. + The open-source community is *fantastic* for that. You may find + some projects with plenty of issues in their git repos and + design/code quality of varying degrees of excellence but they are + *all* great bases to get started from. + + One of my favorite aspects of decentralization is discovering a + codebase someone shared eons prior and finding out that a + particular function (or even the entire codebase) fits in + perfectly with whatever I'm working on. It sometimes feels like + spelunking. You'll never know what you find but treasures await! + My other favorite aspect of it is knowing that *I* am in control + of my data. There's no ambiguity there. I don't have to trust a + third-party, I can trust myself. After all, I wrote the code (or + adapted it after I read through it). + + *A key aspect of decentralization that scares non-tech-savvy + people is self-hosting.* Of course I can say that it's no big deal + but that's because I've been doing this for years. Some tech-savvy + people just don't want to deal with server updates and the like. I + totally get that because maintenance *can* be a drag. You've + really got to decide what you want for yourself. Personally, I + think self-hosting is important and I advise everyone to try it at + least once. Even if it's just to get over that fear of purchasing + (well, *leasing*) a $5/month server from DigitalOcean[5] or + Exoscale[6] to hack on and test things with. + + Here's a list of things I self-host: + + - CMS: Noto[7] (super simple Markdown-based "CMS" I created that + runs the blog you're reading right now) + - Email: Mail-in-a-Box[8] (this is *super* simple to setup) + - Git: Gitea[9] (MUCH lighter than GitLab and more + customizable too) + + If self-hosting is not your thing, you can sign up and/or join + servers other people have created. For example, Mastodon[10] is a + decentralized Twitter-like social network. You can fire up your + own Mastodon instance or you can sign up for one and start + chatting with people. I'm taking the opposite approach with the + social network I'm developing but I intend to add decentralized + features to it, like PubSub support. + + Speaking of which, I am working on a social network and an + analytics service because 1) I was not able to find exactly what I + was looking for, and 2) if you want something done right you gotta + do it yourself. I've already detailed my reasons for starting a + social network[11] before but I never published anything about the + analytics service. + + Plain and simple, I abhor trackers. However, I enjoy viewing stats + that tell me how many people visit my site, the most popular link + visited today, and so on. I was using Gauges[12] prior to creating + Chew[13] and one of my tech-savvy friends expressed to me that + while he knows who I am and can trust me, he wasn't going to go + through the trouble of whitelisting my blog. I don't blame him, + the advertising industry is to blame. With more people utilizing + ad blockers, how would anyone get accurate analytics? I realized + that I could utilize the middleware function in Express[14] to get + my analytics. I may go deeper into my thought-process and + inspiration for Chew at a later date but for now, you check it + out[13] and use it in your own apps! + + What now? + + Getting your family, friends, and community onboard with what + you've just learned is an uphill battle. You can lead by example + though, so *do not feel discouraged* if/when they don't care about + the privacy implications of staying with + ~~well~~deceptively-designed services. We did not arrive at this + clusterfuck of invasiveness and moral ambiguity overnight…it took + some time and it will likely take some time to free ourselves + from it. + + Good luck. 🕸 + +References + + [1] <https://www.metafilter.com/95152/Userdriven-discontent#3256046> + [2] <https://mailinabox.email> + [3] <https://duckduckgo.com> + [4] <https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl> + [5] <https://www.digitalocean.com> + [6] <https://www.exoscale.com> + [7] <https://git.inc.sh/IdeasNeverCease/Noto> + [8] <https://mailinabox.email> + [9] <https://gitea.io> + [10] <https://mastodon.social> + [11] </WM-023> + [12] <https://gaug.es> + [13] <https://chew.sh> + [14] <https://expressjs.com> |