| Interesting perspective. What about the other extreme, though? This circumstance has only really existed in the past 20 years or so, maybe less. Why not just revert some of your behaviors? - Delete your Facebook account. If you really need it to keep in touch with people across the country, at least delete the app from your phone and don't leave it open in a browser tab. - Don't place asinine Amazon orders just because they ship free. Stop by a drug store or hardware store on your way home from work for odds & ends. You can even pay cash and kill the CC data bird with the same stone. Bonus points for instant gratification. - Don't use GMail. Use an email provider like Protonmail or Tutanota that doesn't index all of your emails for advertising or other purposes. - Don't sign in to Google (or Waze or whoever else's site) when navigating or searching so all of your actions online aren't automatically tied to a single account. - Don't buy some internet-of-shit appliance that inevitably phones home with a bunch of telemetry data just so you can get a push notification when your laundry is dry. Want to go really extreme? Now that you've uninstalled Facebook and aren't getting push notifications from your toaster, ditch your smart phone. Pay $15/mo for calls/texts on a Nokia 3310 and save some cash while you're at it. Want to listen to music on the go? Buy an MP3 player like everyone did 10 years ago. Want to play games on the go? Buy a GameBoy and experience the wonder of physical buttons while gaming. Really need directions on the go? You can probably get by with a Garmin or even gasp a paper map. Want to read HN or Reddit on the toilet? Try a book. Yes, I've written mobile apps and my iPhone is sitting on the desk right in front of me, but I hate the fucking thing and its always-connected mobile data. I've done the rest of the above bullet points and don't plan on buying another smart phone when this one hits planned-obsolescence in another year or two. Aggressive data collection depends on user engagement. The easiest way to fight it is to just quit engaging. Usually it'll save you money, too, which is nice. |