I’ve been de-coupling from the reliance on “cloud” services. Earlier I removed everything important from Google servies, and Google Drive in particular. However I still needed to share a couple of important things to my other devices, especially my phone, when not home. So, I still have to maintain a minimal prescence.
Then I found Syncthing. Essentially it lets any device sync to any other devices (which you cofigure), bypassing the Internet. That way, Big Tech companies do NOT have your critical data. It works on Windows, Linux, and mobile platforms.
Why is having your data on Big Tech clouds a big problem? Imagine if Google or Microsoft bans you for some stuff, you no longer can log in until you make a new account, or get the current ban revoked. You’ve just lost all access to your documents and data on your “cloud”.
Background – I’ve been a Unix / Linux sysadmin since the early 2000s. Hence I’m no stranger to Unix environments.
With the recent shennanigans by Microsoft pushing ads to their start menu as well as their insistence on making everything AI (not to mention their Recall “feature”), I finally decided enough was enough. Time to ditch Windows.
Previously only ONE thing held me back from moving – games. Yup I need the ability to run games on Linux if ever moved over. Now, Linux does!
Recently, the Singapore govt used the TraceTogether data from the COVID tracing app to assist in solving a criminal case.
And suddenly, everyone was concerned about the govt “spying” on them. Many posts were written on both sides – for and against. Personally I don’t see what the issue is – the govt used it to bring a criminal to justice, not like it’s using that data to see what you have been up to. Besides, the amount of info that effort gathered is so minimal – GPS location, time, and other device IDs that your device was less than 10m to (Bluetooth tech).
What people don’t realise is that they are leaking much more data to the Internet than they know. Posting a pic on Instagram, tagging your friends, and geo-tagging it (or tagging a restaurant/resort etc), immediately exposes more info to Instagram (which is a private company, not govt) and you have zero control how they use that info. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, you know they’ll use it for ads and other “personalization” uses.
