Am I Going Too Far?

It has been over a year now since I learned about just how much information big tech collects for ads, and only now am I truly taking action. I have deleted my Twitter account just last week, next up is Discord, then Facebook. I switched to Mastodon from Twitter, and my plan is to switch to Matrix from Discord later on. The hardest part about switching services, is convincing people to come with you. The more I tell them about how they are tracking and serving ads, the more I hear the same answer, “So what?”

And I think about that. Maybe they’re right, what if they are collecting my data, and using it to target and possibly manipulate me? I still get the service for free!

And there it is. “Free.” I didn’t have to pay to use Discord, but I also didn’t have to pay to use Matrix, did I? Because it is funded by generous donators, not advertisers (Please donate to your instance admin). It’s also free, FOSS, doesn’t make me the product, and actually lets me do whatever the **** I want! Discord wouldn’t let you use another client, they’d ban you! The Matrix network (in my experience) also goes down less than Discord does (it depends on your instance!).

Discord will be the hardest to switch from. All my friends are on there because it’s so hip and cool, you know, giving all your data to Tencent.

To recap, their argument is always that proprietary software/services are free… Well so is Mastodon, Matrix, Lemmy, Plume, and many more, you just don’t want to switch.