Privacy

Matrix, I would use only matrix anymore, and if they kill e2e in Matrix, I use a fork that has it not killed.

Quit smartphones. Use only air gapped computer, (hoping govt or biz does not send signal to trigger kill switches they are known to have in them.)

I did not have a cell phone for most of my life and I think I was happier without it. Internet was great but the enshitification makes it less and less useful.

At a minimum I want to switch to open source on computers and phone. Maybe the NSA types can still see everything you are doing, but one might be able to prevent the data brokers from getting it, which allows anybody willing to pay for tranches of it to know everything you have done, and that includes every single government agency which buys that data now.

One might think since you weren't doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear, this information is inherently harmful in the hands of these interests in ways that are not readily apparent. Such as micro targeting on Facebook and such.

I have the knowledge to get around their bullshit and do it the hard way.

many people in the comments say that they’d keep using the banned apps, which is a fair thing to say since we said that they’re banned not blocked.

however, i would a assume that banned encryption eventually means blocked encryption. as is the case in russia where matrix and simpleX are blocked too https://merlinux.eu/press/2025-05-14-russia-deltachat.pdf

now, blocked servers can be accessed via vpn as many people pointed out, but a government that really wants to crack down on encryption would use deep packet inspection like the uae. this allows detection and blocking of vpns too, as long as they’re well known enough, just like with the encrypted chat servers. so, vanilla wireguard may be blocked, but the latest obfuscated wireguard mod may not.

with all that in mind, encrypted communication would probably be a constant cat and mouse game, unless everyone built their own very tiny encrypted communication. if the variety was large enough, it would probably be too resource intensive to block it all, but it would also be very resource intensive for everyone trying communicate. also, not everyone is a programmer, capable of creating their own encrypted messaging.

i’d be really curious what people would do unter the described, very restricted circumstances that partially exist in some places of the world. i don’t really have an answer yet.

Saddle that sentence and ride it to work as it runs on and on.