Tag Archives: Privacy

Modern tech is cancerous – I’m going clear

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Most of modern tech, be it devices or software / digital services are corrupt and cancerous. They promise increased productivity and ease of use in exchange for your privacy and your control.

My aim is to go clear, as much as I can, and document that journey here.

Some things I have already done, such as switching to a privacy-respecting email provider like Protonmail. And a privacy-focused messaging service like Signal.

My aim for these posts is to give others a kind of guide to do this themselves. Some of the steps will be difficult for those who don’t have the privilege of time and / or technical know how. This is also part of the problem – some alternatives are not easy or convenient to switch to. But I will do my best here.

I’m not bothered about privacy — I have nothing to hide.

people without a real clue. Also people without curtains on their windows or doors on any toilets they use.

Setting up mine, and my family’s, Homelab

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I’ve opted for what I believe is the easiest, and cheapest, method of setting up my Homelab.

I’m using my old work PC which has the following spec:

  • Quad core processor — i7, I think.
  • 16gb of RAM
  • 440GB ssd storage (2x 220gb in an LVM setup)
  • A USB plug-in network adapter (really want to upgrade to an internal one though)

My Homelab Goals

My homelab goals are centered around two fundamental tenets: lower cost for online services and privacy.

I want to be:

  • Hosting my own personal media backups: All my personal photos and videos I want stored in my own installation of Nextcloud. Along with those I want to also utilize its organizational apps too: calendar; todos; project planning; contacts.
  • Hosting my own music collection: despite hating everything Google stands for, I do enjoy using its Youtube Music service. However, I have many CDs (yes, CDs) in the loft and don’t like the idea of essentially renting access to music. Plus it would be nice to streaming music to offline smart speakers (i.e. not Alexa; Google Speaker; et al.)
  • Hosting old DVD films: I have lots of DVDs in the loft and would like to be able to watch them (without having to buy a new DVD player)
  • Learning more about networking: configuring my own network is enjoyable to me and is something I want to increase my knowledge in. Hosting my own services for my family and myself is a great way to do this.
  • Teach my Son how to own and control his own digital identity (he’s 7 months old): I want my Son to be armed with the knowledge of modern day digital existence and the privacy nightmares that engulf 95% of the web. And I want Him to have the knowledge and ability to be able to control his own data and identity, should He wish to when he’s older.

Documenting my journey

I will be documenting my Homelab journey as best as I can, and will tag all of these posts with the category of Homelab.

Moving my video share links to my own Peertube

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Peertube is a self-hosted alternative to YouTube and, to a lesser extent, Vimeo.

I say lesser extent because I think Vimeo’s business model is very different from YouTube’s (Google inc’s).

Whenever a YouTube video is shared on a web page, it is basically like a Trojan horse. Yes, it lets your visitors watch a video directly in your website, but it’s doing so much more behind the curtain.

It is allowing your visitors to be tracked across the web. When a person lands on a web page that has a YouTube video embedded into it, they are seen and tracked by YouTube’s owners: Google inc.

Please don’t do this.

Moving to Peertube

I am very technologically privileged in that I have the know-how to set up my own “peertube” site (an instance as they are called). So I am not saying that people should all use that.

But do at least consider something like “Vimeo” as an alternative, or maybe even self-host the videos on your website if you have the available storage space.

I am in the process of migrating videos in my older posts over to my own Peertube website (My Jams are already moved). If you notice any I have missed, please do let me know in comments below. 🙂

I don’t want the few people who visit my site to be tracked whilst here. I want this to at least be a safe space from the surveillance and advertising swamp that is the modern web.

Status

Bought a second 1tb drive today to have a RAID 1 backup setup for my home Nextcloud server. The things I do to say #GoodbyeGoogle