I always love a good infographic! I’d be happy to collaborate on projects related to the theme of the broligarchy and data privacy. Let me know if you have ideas!

The post is here! Thanks again for letting me use the infographic.

I say, (while out of range of the camera), “I’d like to opt out of the biometric scan, please.” I also opt out my kid if they’re with me.

I rarely get a blink. (There are signs saying you’re allowed to opt out.) Though I wonder if/how that will change with RealID! I didn’t get one because as of right now you can still use your passport, but I know they want everyone to have one.

ETA I have a whole section on this in the free book DISENGAGE: Opting Out—and Finding New Options—to Reclaim Your Life from Spammers, Scammers, Intrusive Marketers and Big Tech.

I didn’t notice that, but I DO know you can opt out of those scans. I do it every time. I was told by one security agent that they don’t store the images, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do so in the future! Also, during their beta, biometric data of many passengers was exposed through a breach.

I see from the company’s privacy page that people in “protected” states can have their data removed, but I assume that’s only data used for advertising/marketing…not data collected/shared for the purpose of tossing you out of the country. Anyone know if there’s a way to exclude yourself from this database? (I doubt it since they’re saying it’s for legal purposes, but you never know.)

Haha, I always love a good infographic! Who can I credit for the infographic and links? I have only like 65 subscribers since I don’t do much promotion, but I think this will be very helpful to them.

I love this! May I share on my blog and with my newsletter subscribers at Punching Up Press? We’re probably in boxes #2 and #3, with a lot of readers starting off in box #1.

Thanks for the info! That’s interesting, I’m also happy to pay for ad-free. I’ll test it out in any case.

Thank you! I might just replace it with Magic Earth.

Thanks! Someone else suggested that to me as well. It’s hard when I have only 3-4 spots per category. If I don’t use this to replace one of the others, I can at least add it to the links page.

Thank you! I got your email, will reply soon.

Yeah, I figured I was preaching to the choir here! But if you feel the info would help others who are not here, please do share.

I emailed you, but wanted to reply here that I love this! I don’t have much to add as I’m having the same problem with my own project trying to make privacy easier for people like, say, my friends and family. They have to really WANT it to go through all those inconvenient steps of changing to alternative products. Even getting people invested in changing their app settings is hard enough!

I think the below commenter is right that people will start to care more when they see what’s going to happen with their data under the new administration (in the U.S., at least). We all thought it was a good trade-off for free and cheap products, and soon we may be faced with our data being used to target us personally.

The only thing I can think of is, have you tried sending info about your sites to relevant news outlets, newsletters, etc.? I got a little traction from being mentioned in two newsletters: Cory Doctorow’s newsletter and the DeleteMe newsletter Incognito. I’m planning on mailing out print press copies of my free book later in May…I have a PR friend who will be helping me with that.

Qwant search

Interesting! Is it totally free? Looks like it. If it’s free and good and not problematic, maybe I’ll use it to replace Kagi.

Yes, that was recommended by someone in /Privacy.

Does Kagi actually pay Yandex for searches? Grrr.

This infographic is for less-techie people (say, me…or even more, my mom). If I get rid of everything I’ve been told is problematic so far (Proton, Kagi, Zoho, in addition to some I actually did end up removing already), there won’t be any doable solutions left for my intended audience. (My mom doesn’t know or care if something is open source, or what an instance is or how to join one for a search engine, etc. But if she can get away from Google, I feel that’s a step in the right direction.)

Maybe I should add an asterisk to the infographic key for anything that’s problematic. Then on the links page I can describe the situation with each one, and let readers decide.

I’ll fix OM!

Whoops! I’ll fix it.

I actually wrote a whole (free) book about it, haha! (I’m a retired journalist.) In short, I got tired of feeling like I was always being followed and watched. I also disliked the way the big tech companies have been taking over U.S. politics. I was proved right after the last election and updated the book to reflect the new administration. And so many more reasons! I also quit Microsoft and Amazon, most of Meta (I have some friends in other countries who only use Whatsapp), and am working on Apple.

Oh, very cool! Yes, do reach out if you decide to do it.