Privacy is dead, long live privacy

Apple, an advocate for privacy is is apparently spying on us¹ , too. It sounds like it doesn’t really matter anymore whether you buy a device or use software from Apple or Google, both companies end up spying on you. I always rolled my eyes when I saw someone putting tape on their laptop camera. It just seemed way too paranoid to me. Apparently I was wrong. I guess soon I’ll be ending my Zoom calls a little differently as well. ² Why is this okay? Why do governments let the right to privacy go so easily?

The answer is simple. Because we as citizens just don’t care. It’s OK now to see cameras everywhere. It makes sense to us, that every device we own tracks our location. It’s convenient to see nice offers or activities nearby. And we also have nothing to hide, right? But is it really okay for a company to track every single conversation you have? What if that company's country suddenly gets another government that likes to use that information? That wants to know whether you are critical of current policies?

While we are still laughing hysterically because Trump still does not accept his defeat, we should all be aware that Trump will certainly not be the last to try to destroy our democracy. If there is one thing social media has managed to do, it is to flush the people who like to make their right thoughts presentable to the surface of society. At the end it’s our obligation to fight these ideologies with everything we have. And to close the circle - I for one will certainly pay more attention to how I send my messages and what exact information my devices share with their manufacturers. It seems to be time for me to give Signal ³ a chance.

Update 2020/11/15

Fake News! Some of the information I was referring to is apparently wrong. Twitter has pointed me to other useful sources regarding data collection by Apple. Apple stores some data, but this is all less dramatic than shown. Read more about it on Jacopo’s blog ⁴ and on Nick’s blog as well ⁵ .