- 11 Dec, 2025 *
"I don’t really care. I’m a good person, I have nothing to hide."
- Random well-meaning people.
The amount of time’s I’ve heard variations of the above is truly remarkable.
It’s something I hear less of as the years go by. Which either says something good about the nature of people in respect to data privacy, or that the corporate machinations have become so grotesque that the stance is steadily losing any hold.
A decade ago I dabbled in trying to be more conscientious of where my data was going. But I noticed even the most mild of the actions taken were met with people giving me funny looks or eye rolls1, but these days I get less of that and more solemn nods; because everyone is tired of the current state of the world.
Data harvesting is b…
- 11 Dec, 2025 *
"I don’t really care. I’m a good person, I have nothing to hide."
- Random well-meaning people.
The amount of time’s I’ve heard variations of the above is truly remarkable.
It’s something I hear less of as the years go by. Which either says something good about the nature of people in respect to data privacy, or that the corporate machinations have become so grotesque that the stance is steadily losing any hold.
A decade ago I dabbled in trying to be more conscientious of where my data was going. But I noticed even the most mild of the actions taken were met with people giving me funny looks or eye rolls1, but these days I get less of that and more solemn nods; because everyone is tired of the current state of the world.
Data harvesting is both meat grinder and arms race. Data is something corporations can’t get enough of. Greedily scything whole fields to sell to the highest bidder, to train their new AI models, to generate advertisements.
But what if that data is your thoughts? Your conversations in channels of communication? Your declarations of love? Is it moral to turn that into a commodity?
"Thought is not a thing. It is a verb, it is an action. It is something that naturally has a different economy from other things."
- John Perry Barlow
I still believe the internet is one of the greatest inventions humanity ever churned out2. A place you can transmit your thoughts as bits, openly communicate with people similar or different than you. A repository for the human mind and knowledge. Even with all it’s imperfections and ugliness. I think it’s extraordinary.
I was emailing with a blogger, sharing my thoughts on one of their posts. It got me thinking if the internet could be saved, that if there was some way we could collectively stop areas from turning into advertisement and data harvesting nightmare zones.
But I think I was wrong. The internet is a lot like actual space. Its infinite. You just have to wade away from the more populated sectors that corporations have turned into land-fill, leaving them entirely, to find the sweet spots. Areas that are worth preserving.
And from there as a starting point, by choosing to not partake in the perpetual harvest, I think you can make better strides into maintaining where your data goes.
[Mail reply ](mailto:khem@neuronetch.com?subject=Re: Your Data Is Worth Preserving)
As though I were wearing a tinfoil hat, proclaiming the incoming wrath of a cybernetic godhead descending upon me, arms held out in fervent rapture (okay maybe not that dramatic, but you get it).↩ 1.
Perhaps behind penicillin, and maybe coffee and free speech.↩