I’m going to clean up my digital life. No more google, facebook, gmx, linkedin and hotmail. From now on I’m going to be in control about who controls my data. (to the extent possible)
I’ll update this article with my progress so far.
Step 1: notify everyone that I’m leaving facebook. — in progress
Step 2: notify everyone that I’m leaving linkedin.
Step 3: end the FB and LI account –done for FB
Step 4: clean up subscriptions on my previous mail addresses.
Step 5: clean up all mail addresses.
Step 6: Annoy the hell out of FB and LI for retaining my data. (optional)
If you want to know why, read on:
Facebook and google are like vacuum cleaners when it comes to privacy sensitive data on the internet. A good way to avoid them is to just block all their associated domains. That’s the end goal, to just edit my HOSTS file with a couple of blocks, thereby denying them access to most of my data.
The main reason I’m dumping Linked-in and google is that I’m taking control of my freedom to the maximum extent possible within (I hope) socially acceptable bounds. Besides that I’m also cleaning up old email addresses to simplify some of the information streams in my life.
Living a more purposeful and meaningful life by not messing around with facebook will probably make my life a happier one. Although it’s nice to have a list of friends just a click or two away, I don’t seem to experience a lot of extra joy in my life by having it. It just seems to suck away a lot of time. facebook just distracts, and doesn’t add enough value for me in return. Linked-in just shares too much of my data, and they will steal more of it if they can. They’re known to sneak into your mail account and take all your contacts so they can expand their network.
If you want to talk to me, here are many other ways as well. 🙂