I have been trying to take my digital privacy more seriously as of late, but I find myself falling into a cycle of all-or-nothing. I will do a little bit to improve my privacy and then will suddenly feel like I need to go full-on down the rabbit hole. This leads to burnout, and then I’ll convince myself that it’s all futile and I should just use what’s most convenient.
How do you all find a balance that works for you? Or do you just change things constantly?
I fell into the same trap, and had to start learning compromise, as well as when I needed to put a specific topic on the back burner to simmer a little bit.
Some projects went swimmingly. I migrated all services off Google (email, cloud, domains) and onto privacy conscious hosts in countries with better privacy laws. I started religiously using 2FA and a open source password vault. I got most of my easily obtained public info scrubbed from the internet.
Other things not so much. I just couldn’t find an easy or satisfactory way to relinquish my carrier cell phone number for more anonymous VoIP services. My credit card companies no doubt track my every purchase and move. My friends refuse to stop using messengers that mine their data.
The moral of my long winded account above is: do what you can, it still makes a difference. And let yourself feel accomplished by it, because most people can’t or won’t do shit to protect themselves.