My Perspective
by Buckminster Emptier
I decided to share my perspective after reading a letter in the Summer 2016 issue of 2600. The letter was about smartphone apps that are not privacy invasive and the reply from 2600 was appropriate. I would like to expand on that response by sharing my philosophy of how to deal with smartphones, other invasive technologies, and people who use them.
The reply from 2600 mentions that smart phones make a myriad of very personal data available to any number of actors, including app makers and governments and "God knows who else." I think it's well-enough understood at this point that I don't need to explain that the same can be said of many desktop applications and browser add-ons, some popular proprietary operating systems, various "smart" devices, and possibly even some children's toys. (Look it up if you think I'm joking.)
But here is the point that I want to expand on: 2600 says, "What's particularly sad here is that so many of us - people who really should know better - see these privacy concerns as a tradeoff." When I read this, my world sort of collapsed. Here is why:
I have always given high priority to privacy and dignity (mine and others'), and for years I've bought into the whole "be the change you want to see in the world" shtick. As such, I have eschewed all Google products (including search, which I abandoned in about 2004), all Apple products, Microsoft products, smartphones, tablets, etc. I purchase everything in cash and have never owned an actual credit card (there are ways to buy domains and other things online). I won't patronize a bar or restaurant that uses CCTV. I don't socialize with people who have smartphones or similar devices, I cover my webcam, I've physically removed my microphone, and I don't do any professional work that would further the use of proprietary software or intrusive technologies. I don't mention these things to be holier-than-thou. I mention this for two reasons:
1.) To remind you that it is possible, albeit increasingly difficult, for a person to live a happy, productive life without these things.
2.) To illustrate why I was heartbroken to read the letter in 2600. It made me realize I am more one in these choices than I had thought, and I am writing this to make my case for you to turn away from the Dark Side, join the rebellion, and to eschew these technologies as well.
Please know that I am not a technophobe. I.T. has been my trade, but I resigned in protest from a great job that I enjoyed because the company wanted to use Google Apps for Your Domain, including email. My moral stand has made getting a tech job very difficult. But the truly troubling aspect of "people who really should know better" acquiescing to closed, intrusive technology isn't a personal one. What is so awful is that if the people who should know better aren't actually doing better, then who the hell do we expect to fix things?!? Corporate executives? Politicians? End-users? C'mon, now.
It is easy to place the blame for the surveillance society on nefarious actors - very often state and corporate parties - who are motivated by power and paranoia (including misguided but sincere attempts to provide safety for their countrymen). And it is easy to blame the technologically inept. But none of these groups is actually building the global Panopticon that terrifies so many of us. We're the ones doing that - the nerds, the techs, the "computer people." The "people who really should know better" are working at jobs where we are paid to build the walls of our own prison... and then many of us go home to further feed the beast by using technologies that we know better than to patronize.
So, let's stop. Right now. Today. It's still quite possible to back up and regroup - though in a dark corollary to Moore's Law, I'd say it becomes about twice as hard every 18 months. So let's do it while we still can.
You can live without the Internet, but that's beside the point because you don't have to. There is a whole world of privacy-respecting projects - operating systems, communications platforms, encryption technologies, and more - that are ready to install today. As of this writing, that includes tools like Jitsi, Enigmail, CopperheadOS. Anything that uses GPG, OTR, or ZRTP is probably doing something right. They aren't always as slick as the corporate-funded Juggernauts, but that just means that they need more users and contributors. You need to install them, use them, provide good bug reports, and most of all recruit other people to use them as well. It's ridiculous to wait for a tool to become ubiquitous before you start using it. Only when enough people start using it will it become ubiquitous and we techies have to be on the vanguard.
Depending on what you do for work, being the change you want to see may require you to quit your job. But first, maybe you can try to get your company to change its policies. See if they'll do things like install Linux, create reasonable data storage and data retention policies for CCTV data, etc. If they do these things, then by all means stay there and help them be better corporate citizens! Moving to the personal front, you'll almost certainly have to throw all of your surveillance devices - smartphone, tablet, smart TV, etc. - in the trash can. Or at least physically remove the permanent mic, cover the cameras, and start using Libre, spy-free mobile OSes and apps.
But just as important as these is to start making changes in how you interact with people. You can start by getting off of Facebook, and maybe inviting your friends and family to join the new GNU social node or XMPP network you create for them. You joined Facebook to talk to them, right? Hopefully they love and trust you enough to try it your way now. We have some work to do to make a lot of these federated communication services work the way we want, but that work begins by moving to them full-time. For email and messaging, get off of platforms that make money by pulling data from your messages or that record or analyze your voice, and stop responding to messages that come from these domains and services. Make sure your OS and other software are free-as-in-freedom (a.k.a., Libre) and try to support open-hardware wherever you see it.
If an application you use is only supported on Windows, stop using it! And keep writing to the company until they make a free software version and work to port it to a Libre OS such as Linux. Then roll up your sleeves and start using GPG to encrypt your email - and teach your friends to do the same. GPG isn't easy, but it's important and the knowledge you have once you understand it is roughly the minimum cryptographic education everyone in the modern world should have to understand when digital information can and cannot be trusted. If you already know GPG, you understand what I mean. If you decide to learn it, your world will soon make much more sense to you. Public-key cryptography should be taught in the fifth grade, no joke.
Now here's a really tough one: when you have guests in your home, start asking them to leave their smartphones in their car - or in a little Faraday box you put by the door, next to where people leave their shoes. You don't have to be a jerk about it, but do give a quick and polite explanation if you're asked why, as it's our responsibility to teach the nOObs. And politely decline invitations to socialize in homes or in groups of people with smart devices that will listen to your conversation. If your reluctance to make these changes is based on a fear that you'll seem weird, shame on you. Because if society is doing wrong, then doing right will seem weird. And when it comes to technology, it is the technical people who are qualified to judge what is technologically right and wrong. As such, we have an obligation to lead the way.
Hopefully, you see that I am not suggesting you do without technological devices. On the contrary, I believe that eschewing disempowering technology is necessary in part because it will give us sufficient motivation to create the good, empowering technology that we dream of using. Those of us who are technologically savvy and intellectually curious do not need the world of commodity gadgetry nearly as much as that world needs technologically savvy and intellectually curious people.
I ask again: who do you think is building all of this creepy technology? Do you think that Eric Schmidt and Keith Alexander are coding data-mining tools? Or that a bunch of Microsoft-certified A+ so-called "systems administrators" are building hardware back doors? Ridiculous! The people who are responsible for building this junk are - by and large - the same people who claim to value self-determination and technical excellence but who then acquiesce to the demands of their job, social circles, etc. because $horseshit.
Every day, more doors are closing to the lovers of liberty. I happen to think we're in the eleventh hour and there is only the slimmest of chances that the next generation won't grow up in a world that would have been considered a horrific dystopia just a decade ago. But even the slimmest of chances is a chance, and personally I'd rather go down fighting than give in like a punk.
It is both futile and cowardly to expect things to change if you yourself do not start making changes. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it is the only practical solution I can see to the problem of decreasing personal power due to technological advances. Once the "people who really should know better" start leading, others will have to follow. Some will follow us because we're the people they trust to fix their computers. Some will follow because our tech will be faster, more secure, and more fun. And some will follow because they like dignity, too.
My final plea for those on the fence: try it for 18 months. That's one upgrade cycle, one missed promotion, one small sacrifice to make in order to give the part of you that desperately wants to be part of something meaningful an opportunity to shine.
Anyway, you got a better idea?