Jason Toth (@EnlightenedBacon)

One of the good things that came from COVID and lockdowns, is some people suddenly starting to think about how basic human rights are actually important, including things like the right to privacy. Despite what the Australian government would like people to believe, that privacy is only for criminals, in 1948 the United Nations actually recognized privacy as one of the fundamental human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that almost every country in the world pretended to support at the time. Including Australia! Since the early 2000s, there's been talk that due to technology, we are living in a "post privacy world" and that "privacy is dead". Have you ever considered where those ideas came from though? Do you really think they just naturally originated from nowhere, or perhaps is it more likely they are slogans intentionally spread to push the desired political message? The truth is, despite almost every government in the world working to eliminate privacy by putting restrictions on cash, monitoring electronic spending, restricting private cryptocurrencies, requiring Internet providers to track users and so on, even today privacy is not dead and largely not even illegal in most countries. In fact most of the things you are using that are most invasive to your privacy have private options that can easily replace them. You just haven't heard of them, because there's a lot more money to be made from stealing people's data and spying on them for oppressive governments, like Australia's. Here's some quick alternatives to commonly used products. Instead of Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive, you can use Filen, Seafile, Tresorit or Nextcloud. Instead of Gmail or Outlook, you can use Protonmail or Tuta Mail. Instead of an iPhone or Android phone, you can use GrapheneOS. Instead of Chrome or Edge, you can use Firefox or Brave. Instead of Windows or Mac, you can use Linux Mint. Admittedly this is a more difficult transition that the others, but worth it. Remember, you're already paying massive amounts in tax to a government that wants to oppress and destroy you and your family. Why also give money and/or personal information to companies who want to help them do the same?