Scorched Web

There is often discussion about “private” messaging apps and the relative pros and cons, but privacy is a concept that can have different meanings to different people.

Great article in Scientific American pointing out that in the 2020-2021 winter flu season, the “flu” has completely disappeared.

On April 5th, 2021 Justice Thomas wrote an opinion for the Supreme Court that for the first time correctly frames the debate around internet censorship, or its politically correct euphemism “content moderation”.

Announcing the new Scorched Web Wiki project to have a community resource for all items about privacy, federated social media, and the decentralized and distributed Web 3.0 There is a ton going on in this space, and we felt that a community contributed wi…

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/05/1020376/resist-big-tech-surveillance-data/ That is a fascinating article from MIT about how to fight back against the surveillance economy of Big Tech by poisoning the data that they are using.

As we talked about in Purge Gmail before Gmail Purges You, Google will lock you out of your account.

I came across in a discussion forum and it was very thought provoking, if for no other reason than as a reminder that nothing we are experiencing today is new.

For whatever reason you have decided it is time to remove yourself from the Google universe, below are the services I have used to extricate myself.

Would you be wiling to forward me all your email?

The two best known providers of un-censored, freedom and privacy respecting email services are Fastmail and ProtonMail.

Today is the day that big tech fully crossed the Rubicon.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/30/we-cant-get-back-to-normal-if-people-think-spreading-covid-equals-murder/

It is articles like this that are shredding the credibility of government and the scientific establishment.

This post will be continuously updated with resources from others on alternatives on how to remove Google, and other centralized “spying as a business model” service from your life: https://wiki.scorchedweb.com/doku.php?

There is a solid history in the US of consumers banding together to effect (or is it affect?)

Burner email Services Create fake (burner) email addresses that can be used for services that require email for you to sign up, but you don’t want to give your real email.

In addition to these secure and private email hosting services previously profiled (www.fastmail.com and https://protonmail.com/) there is an open-source software alternative called MailPile that allows you to host your email on your own desktop or server…

There are things you can do right now to take back your privacy.

If you are a supporter of a more democratic, less censored web, where privacy is the foremost importance, then there are organizations you can join and support that are working to advance these causes.

Would you let complete strangers know everywhere you have been?

Here are four articles that are good reads on the usual privacy and how to best safeguard yourself from companies in the business of stealing your privacy and selling it for a profit (aka: Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc…) https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2…

If you want a frightening read, from ACLU who I personally dislike, on how Facebook, and we can assume all others in the surveillance economy, monitor and track you even if you never signed up for Facebook.

Google, Facebook, Amazon… they are monopolies pure and simple.

Why escape from the Goolag?

If you are not already using Firefox as your browser, here is one more reason you should (as if making sure that Google doesn’t record every single key-press you type while using using the web wasn’t enough reason not to stop using Chrome…) Firefox has an…

Would you let a stranger read everything your child does at school?

Citizens Against Monopoly is an excellent organization working to battle the monopolies of the internet.

How much would you need to be paid to let someone know where you are every moment of the day within 5 yards and then sell that information with thousands of companies and people you don’t know?

The internet as your personal source of news has taken many forms, and unfortunately where we have ended for most people is a place where others decide for you what you should be thinking and reading.

DuckDuckGo published this excellent blog post on their version of how to exit the Goolag.

The CEO and founder of DuckDuckGo, a completely private search engine that is a suggested replacement for google, wrote a great entry on why you should use their service: https://www.quora.com/Why-should-I-use-DuckDuckGo-instead-of-Google