I wonder if they ever really have? When I was in school they taught you how to use a computer, but not what the computer was doing or how it worked.

I’m not too connected to the educational sector anymore but anecdotally it seems like becoming tech literate has a growing stigma (it’s always had a stigma). Happily ignoring what it’s doing while it’s actively abusing you.

Ironically/coincidentally – Can I blame Alannis Morisette for my lack of understanding of the differences? – I watched “V For Vendetta” recently. Nov. 5th and all.

In it (if you’re unaware) the US tore itself apart while the UK kept some semblance of order through authoritarianism. So, feels half right? We’re tearing ourselves apart over attempted authoritarianism.

“national security threat” == “threat to the regime we’re trying to establish”.

This is what I came to express as well. Unless the software is open source, both client and server, what they say is unverifiable and it’s safest to assume it’s false. Moreover, the owning company has a verifiable and well known history of explicitly acting against user privacy. There is no reason to trust them and every reason not to.

I use syncthing + Joplin for this. I haven’t looked into exporting data but I’d be surprised if it couldn’t. Otherwise it checks your boxes. Joplin also supports encryption, which wasn’t on your list but is a great feature.

Joplin supports a handful of sync methods but using a file based sync with syncthing is nice because it’s less effort and maintenance to run than self hosting nextcloud, for example. And since it’s purpose is to sync as opposed to remote access, you still have access to a copy your data even if you can’t reach any of your syncthing nodes for whatever reason. Though to be fair you can do that with nextcloud as well.

Pfft. My gramgram self-hosts on her own LFS build with a hardened kernel and custom written SELinux policies. All your grandparents need to get on her level.

Disclaimer: Everything here is a lie.

Firefox or some flavor of Firefox. Maybe keep a secondary chromium based browser around if there’s something you NEED that doesn’t work in Firefox for some reason. That said though, I’ve been Chrome-free for some time with no issue.

I mirror your concerns but as long as there’s money to be made, the thing that makes money will continue to happen. Advertising is part of that, and if they can harvest our data to target ads, they will.

We won’t win the fight against money. What we can do is block/avoid advertisements, avoid (as much as possible) services that are known for this behavior, support services that are known to respect privacy, and educate those that are receptive.

I’d never heard of Project Gorgon until it was recommended to me on here like, yesterday? Funny that it came up again.

I spun up the demo this morning. It feels pretty rough around the edges, but I’ll give it a little more time.

I also looked at Palia. Looks like a relaxing game!

I do think you have to pick your battles when interacting digitally with people in your life, and I agree that you shouldn’t force anyone in to a solution they don’t want to use. But were I OP, I’d pick this battle. Refuse to use it, tell them they can leave you notes on the fridge.