I think Facebook was the first big social media platform to absolutely insist on real names, tying online profiles to real-life identities. Now we see how dangerous this is. If I recall correctly, they gave justifications like combating disinfo and spam, but it must be obvious to most people in retrospect the purpose was to build dossiers on people for the purposes of targeted advertising, manipulation and censorship. We need to roll this paradigm back. Everyone should go back to using pseudonyms and handles, preferably multiple ones.
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Great comment. An accurate assessment of the problem, and a suggested solution.
I agree, remain anonymous online whenever possible. There's nothing evil about privacy. Prohibiting privacy (wow, unpack that short phrase!) is true sickness. When you prohibit something, you drive up demand (and price) of it. By making privacy almost illegal, they create a rabid demand for it, which leads to problems.
Another way to take back privacy is refusing to buy and use the tools of our own enslavement. As much as many people don't want to hear it, that means smart devices. They are literally how the technocrats are taking control of every aspect of life and society, their goal since the early 19th century. We don't need connected wifi smart devices on us at all times. Furthermore, they're doing us harm, and allowing us to be controlled. We know this, but 99% of us continue to put our hands in the cuffs voluntarily, even as we're being made to walk the plank.
Interesting point about it creating demand! Note the rise of privacy browsers like Brave and Dissenter.
I totally agree with you about these smart devices, AKA IoT (Internet of Things) devices. One of the most frustrating things about them to me is there is really no reason they have to work the way they do. You can make a door cam that lets you see what's on your front porch without the video having to be be first uploaded to the smart door cam maker's "cloud" for aggregating, cataloging, analyzing and sharing with third-parties like the government and advertisers. You could make all of these devices so they directly connect to your computer or phone without sending data through an intermediary over the Internet. This goes for smart refrigerators, plugs, and every other "smart" device they are trying to sell us. IoT is a con-job to get people to give away even more of their privacy and allow even more intrusive data collection.