Grounding the Cloud
Become more Privacy- and Eco-conscious Online.
In a time where Big Tec and social media collect information about us without consent,
this website tries to give alternatives for your everyday digital activity.
Going more private is an act of activism and even often more eco friendly since there are amazing alternatives on green energy. Also preventing data from being collected saves water and energy.
Big tech companies collect information about you, without you knowing it. By collecting this data they might calculate how you feel by the way you swipe, your heartbeat - tracked by your smartwatch - and the things you buy with nfc or online. By gathering all this data they try to predict what you want to buy next, and therefore show you the right ads on the right time - which is making them a lot of money.
People say ‘Data is the new oil’ – I dont think we can measure a liter of data, but I do think our data is worth a lot of money. The digital advertizement marked is valued at $819 billion. Money is power so boycotting is taking away that power. Let’s boycott by keeping our data safe.
You might think that big companies already know everything of you anyway. But if they don't know the coming month what you buy, its harder to predict what you are going to buy the month after that. All small steps help.
Especially if you think that you have nothing to hide, going more private online is important. This is because big tec- companies normalised using our data without consent and therefore told us that if we had nothing to hide we had nothing to fear. And that, while they earned so much money with our data.
It is not about hiding but about consent, “I have nothing to hide” sounds like someone who has never been oppressed by a government, is not part of a marginalised group in society or is not activistic. We do not know who will have power next and what they will do with it.
It all might sound like something from a dystopian sci-fi movie, but just a few of the known methods of data collection include collecting banking and shopping information, tracking your car as you drive, tracking your phone’s physical location with bluetooth as you browse the store to see where you spend the most time, collecting your DNA from family heritage testing services and more.
Many western governments are increasingly surveilling citizens without cause and cracking down on the peaceful expression of political opinion. See extinction rebellion struggling with hackers and intruders of the police who do not want us to rebel against nature destructive capitalism.
It's important to not let this overwhelm you too much. You can't do this perfectly and it will take time, so change step by step. In order to change the way things are we have to make sure we do not freak out. It might give you a lot of anxiety to realise that tech companies know so much about you already but this fear should not petrify you. Let's put it into action!
It is good to talk about this with friends and family and to also understand that it might be scary but you can actually change this if you want to.
If you want to do it perfectly, it’s going to be a lot of work and cost a lot of time. You can’t become invisible for big tech in one day. That’s why this website has 3 stages, so you can take it step by step. It can be stressful to feel like you want to do it perfectly, but we think that people can do more if they actually do things bit by bit and change slowly over time.
Lets start with some links. I got my information and inspiration from these websites and channels. (Be careful: some more popular ones are also made to make you feel anxious about your privacy so they get more popular. Let’s stay sane <3)
https://yewtu.be/channel/UCs6KfncB4OV6Vug4o_bzijg
(Techlore – on alternative YouTube)
https://yewtu.be/channel/UCSuHzQ3GrHSzoBbwrIq3LLA
(Naomi Brockwell – on alternative YouTube)
https://www.privacyguides.org/
Looking for an alternative? Go to alternative.to We give a lot of suggestions for alternatives to use but there are more. The ones we give are the ones we like the best and are more private.
Easy steps First
Here we have a list of the most easy – but most important – things to change. All the small things help!
