really? It works with just http? that is weird.

It suggests to me that the web hosting company we are using don’t know what they’re doing. We’re going to change.

good points, well written.

On the conspiracy point: Would it help to distinguish between standard use of micro-targeting (flooding the zone with shit and targeting swing voters) and foreign gov interference?

I find both to be shocking, but perhaps the latter is more conspiracy like. And the latter requires the misuse of the RTB system (e.g. the Russian military paying to pose as advertisers to get access to the RTB data), whereas the former is just an ugly byproduct of using the RTB system legally.

The site is hosting by a hosting company - and they assure me that the cert is fine.

If I was self hosting I’d expect these problems, but not with a hosting company.

The only difference with this company is that they do not use any big tech infrastructure - they have their own servers. I wonder if big tech has something they don’t…?

Interesting!

And then Fuckerberg would gaslight us by declaring that “public health is dead”

lol you’re right up there with the person suggesting doxxing just to show them it can be done…!

Having said that I did read about someone who tried to locate themselves using publically findable information, and they managed it. It freaked them out a bit, so to do it to someone else would be wild.

This is my attempt at that: Rebel Tech Alliance - Learn Section

I’d like to crowdsource this learning section but not sure how. I linked to the Codeberg site on the homepage but that probably won’t work as too techy.

lol I’ve tried to answer that one on this page: https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/nothingtohide.html How did I do?

It certainly make me feel safer against big tech snooping. Is obscuring your IP address not useful? I genuinely want to hear the arguments for and against VPNs. And if they’re not effective what are better ways we can protect ourselves?

I’m in the UK and there’s a feeling amongst some that “we’re next” if we don’t curb the rise of the far right.

The Reform party’s victories here this week are another alarm bell.

Shoshana Zuboff says that privacy is already, effectively, dead. Or at least on life support. And there is no way we can reform the tech giants and surveillance capitalism. She says the only way out is around - to boycott them and use alternatives. That’s what inspired my site.

I have friends and family who occupy both sides of the political spectrum, so it’s impossible to have just one message that suits both. That’s why I’ve largely avoided politics my whole life…

But tech has become political, so it’s not that easy to avoid anymore 😬

On my website homepage Rebel Tech Alliance.org I try and make it clear that we’re trying to undermine a business model, not a political ideology. But the presence of the word ‘capitalism’ in surveillance capitalism does trigger some people to start talking politics.

This is the same argument against trusting opaque algorithms from proprietary systems (usually billionaire owned). You just don’t know when they’re going to tweak it for their purposes.

harsh! but might work lol

OMG your book is amazing! You actually sent me a summary version before, and I’ve just downloaded the full one. I’ll add it to my Calibre library and share with others!

I love that foreword about the town square - “Are we in paradise yet?”

We should work together - you’re right your book covers a lot of the same ground as my website, but just better written and better researched lol

I’ll change the normie thing in the post - that was a mistake to use that term regarding privacy knowledge.

How could I reshape the message to be more about the hostility of the information space? Where would you start? I do talk about elections being swung, but since I’ve dumpted all billionaire-owned social media (and newspapers/tv news) then I’m actually not in a good position to write specific stories about hostile info. Your guidance is welcomed!

You’re mostly right about self-hosting, but in my ‘normie’ journey (I’m using it correctly there) into self hosting I’ve found that there are actually a few wins that non-techie people can achieve: Jellyfin, Syncthing and Calibre. They all give back some data sovereignty. but I suppose until I can explain that, it’s probably best not to even mention it.

As for the student energy vibe? lol fair. I’m rubbish at design, and probably so immature that my mental age stopped then 😂 In time, and if I can get any funding, I will pay someone to help with marketing and design. Someone quoted my £1200 to get some better visuals on there, but I just cannot afford that atm.

One thing I would like to do is gamify the process of changing away from big tech, but I’m not sure how to do that. Perhaps some web games baked into the site?

I’ve had a bit of success with this - a cousin for example was shocked by a report I sent him about the RTB system - but I worry that if I send too many of those kinds of info then people will think I’m some kind of conspiracy theorist. 😱

You’re right. I replied to someone else about this - I’ll change the post.

Totally - if the same functionality isn’t there, most people won’t switch.

What about having both running in parallel for a while?

This. You’re so right. It’s stories that move people not facts - I constantly forget this!

I’ve made a note to use the blog to put the messages in story form - case studies.

Thank you for writing that!

This is a VERY interesting perspective - thank you for sharing!

You are lucky in Norway to have that level of trust, but I’d never considered the flip side: that it would create a dangerous apathy about privacy.

Your two angles are great:

1. This is so true but for some it is so nebulous, and it countries like the UK (and especially if you are white and not struggling financially) then there is an exceptionalism that creeps into the thinking. Probably because we’ve never been invaded and occupied. I was in Norway last year, and Denmark this year, and no one wants that to happen again. It seems to have shaped thinking a lot - correct me if i’m wrong 😊

2. This is a big one - privacy is a collective problem. It’s a team sport. I have had some success with this argument.

What’s very hard is to convey to people just how amazingly powerful and efficient big tech’s profiling models really are. Trillions of computations a minute to keep your creepy digital twin up to date. Most people cannot get their head round the scale of it, and I’m struggling to visualise it for them!