I have been pro privacy and anti data harvesting for many years now, however it is becoming increasingly more difficult staying off some platforms. Mostly Meta.
Over the years I have convinced most of my friends and family to use Signal instead of WhatsApp. However, there are still chat groups that I am missing from, and trying to keep up to date with local events seems next to impossible without Facebook or Instagram.
Additionally, I am finding it more and more tiring to have the awkward “No I don’t have WhatsApp. No I don’t have Facebook either. Or Instagram, sorry. Do you want to try an app that you’ve never heard of to stay in contact with me?” every time I meet someone new.
I saddens me that it feels like the multi-billion dollar data harvesting companies are winning, but I no longer know if this is a hill that I’m willing to die on.
What are your thoughts on what we have to give up in our lives just to stay in control of our personal information?
I may loose some answers in searches since I only use DDG
I often do not read articles or information from websites if the gdpr popup isn’t solvable in a click but the site ask to click on a thousand toggles
Where I am at the moment, the lack of FB marketplace sucks
A lot of cultural info goes through Instagram here, so I have to be a bit proactive if I want to know what’s happening
I use signal or text when possible, but work is impossible without whatsapp
random searx instance rotator would probably be more private than just giving ddg all your searches