When I announced I would be closing my communities earlier this year, a curious thing happened: a surprising number of regulars replied with some variation of “I think this is my exit.” While some were specifically talking about Matrix, claiming that mine was the only room they were really active in and therefore they saw no point to having a Matrix account anymore, at least one specifically announced they would be quitting privacy entirely, save for a few basic techniques like using a password manager and being mindful of what to post online. While I didn’t expect the number of people responding that way, I was expecting that response from one or two people. If you check any given privacy forum – especially the ones with a heavy overlap of mainstream users such as Reddit – you’ll find no shortage of people asking “is all this work worth it?” and/or announcing that they’re giving up privacy because it’s too much work. So what gives? Is privacy worth the work?
This is a really important point Id like to see more in privacy communities. Privacy is nuanced and you see a lot of simple thinking around it when really we need more helpful solutions for more casual privacy enthusiasts.
For my personal needs I avoid proprietary services if possible, but I don’t keep them 100% written off. I live a pretty private life but I want to be able to share some things about myself on the internet. But I also don’t want my real name attached to it and I’m not interested in discussing a lot of my PII. So I’m very much in the middle, I think.