Live by your principles, not threat models

When you get into any privacy discussion you will hear about how any measure depends on your threat model. Does it ?

Security could be considered a personal choice because having bad security doesn’t inherently have social consequences. Privacy is not. It is a political choice. Don’t protect yours and you empower those surveillance giants and support the oppression of others that may not have the same interests or means. If you think protecting basics human rights is more important than convenience or scrolling then stop feeding those surveillance corporations what they need to sustain themselves.

If you can start educating others, start creating tools and frameworks for others to protect themselves. KISS tho, don’t participate in the political obscuration of privacy measures behind technical jargon and legal language that makes surveillance legislation impenetrable to the average person.

As new generations are growing up in a world where privacy is already eroded, they will have to deal with the consequences of that. They will also have to deal with the fact that they are often less tech-savvy than assumed. The new generation use more tools, more easily, but they don’t understand them, making them easier to manipulate. They face the same legal, philosophical, and systemic challenges but with less understanding of how the world or computers works.

So please stop hiding behind the “I have nothing not much to hide therefore my threat model is x”, start living by your principles. That being said, of course, not everyone should go live fully offline in the woods. But there are many easy steps you can take to protect yourself and others and to go against surveillance legislation and corporations.