The root-cause of all of this isn't evil government, or data analytics, or joins, or even evil company.

Its data collection. Its privacy. If were waiting around for the day people start acting ethically, we'll experience the heat death of the universe.

Governments can always turn evil. Companies can always be compelled. People can always turn evil.

We need to not give them the ammunition. We've cornered ourselves into a situation where we sacrifice our data and privacy, and we are forced to blindly trust it will not be used against us.

If we do not collect data, we cannot have data breaches. If we do not collect data, we cannot have mass surveillance. If we do not collect data, we cannot have wiretapping.

We've simply allowed and encouraged tech companies to collect as much data as humanly possible. That starts with Google, Meta, et al. We then trust they will not abuse it.

But they certainly can, and they certainly will. What is done now cannot be undone. We cannot take back data immortalized. But, what we can do is prevent new data collection.

Use private services. Run software locally when feasible. Deny analytics. Block advertisments. Use end to end ecryption. Etc.

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