 Okay, so let's prepare for a little bit of a ramble shall we I want to talk today about Privacy now if you've followed the channel for any amount of time You'll know that I'm not the biggest privacy person out there like for the most part I don't talk about privacy very much on the channel at all Even when it comes to how that privacy plays with false software and all that stuff like a lot of people a lot of Foss advocates tout that privacy is one of the main reasons why you should use open-source software And I've never been that guy, you know for me open-source software means other things like Freedom to do what I want with it and the ability to tweak it. However, I want, you know Those kind of things not necessarily those applications are the most private because for the most part Privacy just isn't that important to me at least when it comes to my data and there are several reasons for this So let's just explain some of the reasons why I feel the way I do about privacy for my main job I'm an editor for a historical magazine and that's not always the case I was a writer for the same historical magazine. I've been promoted since but for the most part all the writing and editing that I do now Unfortunately has to be done in Google Docs, which means that I have a Google account and I've been using Gmail for Since it was in beta. I mean it's been a long time since I've been using Gmail So I'm a big user unfortunately of Google services. I used Android for a long time So when it comes to privacy The way I feel about it mostly some comes down to the fact that I think that that ship has sailed Like I'm pretty sure Google already knows everything about me So protecting myself from that seems like shutting the barn door after the horses have already gone out of the barn So that's one of the reasons why I feel the way I do about privacy So the question remains is should you care about privacy and the answer to that question is I think yes And the reason why I say that isn't because I necessarily think that you should stop using Google services I know a lot of open source advocates say never use a Google service and in an ideal world Sure, stop using Google services use next cloud use duck duck go whatever open source slash Privacy respecting service that you want to use I think that that's a great plan for those of you can do it But I also think that those people who preach that and get upset when other people say never used that I have to use Google I think that those people are a little bit naive because a lot of people who have jobs can't avoid Google they just can't you know same thing like With Microsoft a lot of people work in companies that use Microsoft and they have to use things like Edge and SharePoint and all this stuff that you have to use in order to do business, you know, so often times Avoiding the major evil corporations out there is just impossible for example I mean a big example is Mobile technology like if you want to use a mobile phone these days You're going to end up using a phone that is developed by a company that's probably not gonna respect your privacy It's just a sad truth. You're either gonna use an Apple device or you're gonna use one based on Android Now there are other options out there. There are but they're not mainstream They all have their flaws if you want a really good experience one that deals well with maybe your corporate Infrastructure or whatever you're gonna have to use the main, you know, two of the main the two main Operating systems and that's going to cause You to compromise on your privacy So I really do think that the people who preach about privacy sometimes don't take into account the reality of life that sometimes you just can't avoid using Google or Microsoft or Apple or whatever and That's kind of where I'm at is that I just can't avoid it, right? and because I can't avoid it I oftentimes find myself just using Google to search things because Whether you like it or not Google is the best search engine It just is they have the most data. They stole it from all of us down and they know how to use it Not only to make their advertisements, but to make good search results and they do a good job on that I've tried using duck duck go for my search engine It's not great like half the time I end up going back to Google and doing the search over again It's basically a waste of time. That doesn't mean duck duck go can't deliver good search results But it's not as good as Google. I've tried brave search same problems there So it's not as if I haven't tried to do those things, but maybe if I had Maybe if I was in a position to never use Google again and could try to you know Actually care about privacy then I would suffer through duck duck go more But because I have to use Google anyways I figure I might as well just use the Google search and get good search results so Those are my views on privacy for everyone else if you can't avoid Google you probably should there are good options out there They're not as good as what Google offers sadly in a lot of cases now I think things like next next cloud are close and duck duck go is a is it it's fine You'll probably still end up using Google sometimes, but for most people eventually you'll find what you're searching for and The thing about it is is that you should care about your privacy as much as you are able to But you have to be realistic and realize that in some cases You're just not going to be able to not use the Services that aren't respecting of your privacy is just sometimes you're not going to be able to do that Whether that's because of work or whatever So what's the bottom line the bot? I think at the end of the day Privacy does matter but not in that it is The be all end all of everything but more that what really matters when it comes to privacy is that you're aware of What's going on like as long as you know that by using Google services yourself? You're basically giving them your data as long as you are consenting party in that transaction You are okay, right as long as you are Someone who is fully aware of the transaction that is taking place between you and whatever service you're using then that is an Appropriate thing to do. It's when you are it's when the service takes things from you that you aren't aware of that It becomes a problem. So things like the whole audacity thing like when they were trying to enable telemetry and stuff like that it came across as shady not necessarily because telemetry is bad, but because they were moving from a Situation where they weren't taking any data to a situation where they were looks like they were going to take a whole bunch of data You know and that seemed a little shady. So my thoughts are that as long as you are in a Responsible internet user and you you understand that everything you do online Usually comes with some sort of transaction between you and the website you're visiting that's usually the case and as long as you're aware of that And what that transaction entails and you consent to that transaction you are are fine that's why open-source software is so good because Not this that open-source software is necessarily the most private I don't agree with that a lot of open-source projects collect telemetry like Ubuntu and KDE they all collect telemetry You have to turn it on and whatever but they all do this kind of stuff, right? So open-source software doesn't necessarily equate to Private it just doesn't but what open-source software does is it allows you to Have a transparency layer between you and that other end of the the transaction Whereas that that transparency layer doesn't really exist between you and Google or me and Google You know, I don't really know exactly not only what data are they taking but also what they do with that data I mean, we have a pretty good idea But we don't know that they're not doing something even more nefarious than what we expect they're doing, you know Whereas with open-source software if they are going to Take data from you, which is usually an opt-in process There's still going to be some level of transparency towards what they're doing with that data And that's where open-source software shines. So I think for a new year's resolution I'm going to try to cut out as much google from my life as I can Unfortunately, as I said at the beginning of the video for work, I'm not going to be able to do that But as I was rambling on I think you probably got this the sense of that a lot of times I just fell into using google because I already used google Like the whole horse analogy like I've already given them all this data So I might as well just continue to use google because it's the best and I think that that mentality is Not great, right? It's it's something that I need to fix about myself. So In the new year, I'm switching all of my search engines to duck duck go Or brave I haven't decided yet. It's going to be one of those two It's going to depend on which one pisses me off less I guess and I'm also going to start using next cloud as much as possible because maybe If I can get used to next cloud I can prompt my employer to switch to next cloud. That'd be kind of cool I doubt that that's going to happen, but you never know. So This was kind of a a long rambly video to talk to Talk a little bit about my new user resolution in terms of trying to become a little bit more private and We'll see how it goes I will probably make some videos throughout the year because I know that I I want to do a browser comparison Video between like duck duck go google and brave and see how they do Because I talked to a lot of duck duck go users and they're like, oh, duck duck goes great It's fantastic. What are you talking about? And every time I go to duck duck go I was like I need to go go go to google. Maybe I have an obsession or an addiction or something to google Maybe that's the possibility and it's just me. I don't know. Anyway, so that is it for this video Is like I said, it was a rambly video. It's just the nature of this video So that's just the way it goes You can follow me on twitter at the linuxcast You can leave a comment in the comment section below if you have thoughts on privacy and Foss software and all that kind of stuff You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash linuxcast before I go I would like to take a moment to thank my current patrons Today devon chris east coast web gen 2 is fun to patrick l primus marcus magland jacks m tool steve cyber guy linux garic Mitchell art center carbon dated shawnd jeremy Merrick camp jox really j dogs the bsd's rock peter a and crucible. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time