I saw a snippet of a talk pointing out that Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and others design software from the ground up to spy on you. Sometimes a blatant statement of a problem reminds you of it.

People are learning about the problems with large corporations and governments having so much information on you, though they don’t know what to do about it because they have no alternatives. Gmail benefits them more in the moment than the cost of possible problems in the future.

Geeks recognized these problems decades ago and started creating tools to protect privacy. Tools are emerging to give people more alternatives.

Just like Linux on servers kept Microsoft from monopolizing all servers — can you imagine what would happen with one company (one convicted anti-competitive behavior for abusing its monopoly) owning all the gateways to the internet? — alternatives to central databases like Facebook, Gmail, etc. will give you options to giving corporations and government more data on yourself than you have.

Even if you’re not a geek you may get something out of the video — recognizing the invasiveness of non-free software or the potential to contribute to alternatives.

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