An article about keeping your personal data away from Big Tech's consumer platforms.

Last updated: February 9, 2024

Too long to read?

1. Take the time to learn and understand how cloud services work before you use and trust them.
2. If you don't have time to do that, don't trust them, and try not to use them.
3. Get some drives to store your own data on, even if they're small. You can keep your own important data offline.

To understand the why, you need to first understand the how.

Technology is just a tool

Like a hammer, or a knife? A hammer is likely to be faster and more efficient at seriously damaging your laptop if you don't like it, or the content on it.

Some tools aren't great

Are they slow, hard to use, have poor battery life? Is it overheating? Crashing often? It might be just that it's old, but is that because the hardware itself is old and can't keep up, or some piece of the software you need to accomplish what you want to do is old?

You can replace the tools you don't like

Often times, you can solve these problems by replacing a key tool that you're using that is holding you back. That doesn't necessarily mean replacing the entire device, it could be just some of the software you're using within it.

The Evolution of Software: Understanding the Tools

Older software that older people might remember?

Back in the 1980's, you had software running almost exclusively on local computers, PCs, Macs, Apple IIs, C64s, etc. To use software on them you had acquire a physical disk and make that program and data available to your computer to access and run it.

Tip: You can still use a lot of these older programs and games for free in your web browser at https://archive.org/details/tosec.

That was the standard design. That meant you usually knew what software was actually running on your computer, and who it was from, and you knew what it was doing.

Then the internet became widely available. Companies realized they could offer internet services that made things easier for people to do things that required manual effort in the past.

What is “the cloud”?

In modern times, you are encouraged to not think about the software you are running, and just consume services, either free services or ones that you have to pay for. This isn't a bad thing, and it allows you to gain free access to tools, that are primarily just software, running on someone else's computer using your own device to access it. You need to be very careful with free tools though. Nothing is free to operate on the internet.

The Cloud is just someone else's computer system.

You are storing your data on it, and they can do whatever they want with it, even if they claim they don't, they still own your data physically.

Even if you're using free services, someone is still paying for it. You're trusting these companies with your personal data. They can do anything they want with your data, because they lie when they say they don't.

An Example Cloud Service

Almost all consumer devices today come with a cloud service that synchronizes the photos and video on your phone to their cloud. They offer you a limited amount of space in their cloud for free.

They run software on your computer, phone, tablet, Mac, etc. This software connects to their computers where another tool confirms who you are and then copies your data from your computer (phone) to their computer.

Evaluating the Service

You might be thinking “I know that's how it works, duh.” or even if you're not, that's okay too. The point is that the ease of use of these services condition you to just use them without thinking about how the multiple tools they're using to provide the services actually work.

You might switch services because another free one offers you more storage space, but you're still putting your data on someone else's computer. This might be easy and simple, but it is important to be aware of the implications of it.

YOU are the product they are selling

These “free” tools (services) often do things that are against your best interests that you don't even know they're doing. You’re using them for free because the companies that produce them are mining tremendously creepy amounts of data from you, every second you use them they use you.

Owning Your Data

In the past, the first mobile devices would typically synchronize data to your local computer via a cable. You had a private copy of that data. You could choose who and what to share with other people on the internet.

Modern consumer cloud services have flipped this paradigm. Photos and other data from your phone are automatically uploaded to “the cloud”. You're automatically giving your data to someone else's computer. Someone that you probably shouldn't trust.

In recent years, open source technology has evolved to the point where it is now easy, even for non-technical people, to host many of these common cloud services yourself, on your own computer at your home.

If it was that easy, wouldn't everyone already be doing it?

The reason more people aren't doing this already is because they don't know it is possible, let alone easy. They're also probably unaware or just don't care about the implications of sharing their data with these companies that clearly do not have their best interests in mind.

The Bare Minimum

Get Some Drives

Getting some drives to store your data on is the most important step in breaking free from the cloud. If you don't know what kind of drives you need, my quick guide on drives will get you started.

Once you have some drives, you can copy data onto them using your computer. Keep copies of important things on more than one drive.

Conclusion — The Why

If you treat technology as tools that you think about now and then, instead of just using them without thinking, you'll realize that maybe there are better tools you can use.

You want tools that don't exploit you without your knowledge. Tools that allow you to easily keep a local or even offline copy of your data. Tools that allow you to choose who you share it with.

Start small and simple, then build upon that if you want to and have the time. You can own your data and know where it is physically located.

In my next article:

How and why to make your own home server

What if you could replace all the cloud services you use with services you run at home, and store your data on your own drives, but still have it synchronized with all of your computers and mobile devices?

If you'd like to contact me about ideas you have for this blog, or anything else, text me on Signal or email me. My email address is my first name @halimc.com