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Why do I self-host?

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My reasons for self-hosting.

Digital freedom/independence

Freedeom pic

To put it simply, if you use a service such as Lastpass, iCloud, Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, etc. -to store your data, you do not own it.

You are trusting corp. X to store it, secure it, and make it available to you. -Beyond the obvious privacy pitfalls with this, there are many other things that -could go wrong with your data being stored this way:

Corp. X could vanish/close/“declare bankruptcy” (as with many crypto corps. lately), and you lose your data.
Corp. X could make a policy change and lock you out from accessing your account.
Or you could “forget” to pay the bills a few times and get locked out.
Corp. X could get hacked, and your data gets stolen. This is the latest trend!
Many other doomsday 💀 scenarios.

Personally, I don’t feel comfortable depending on the existence of corp. X for data that is important to -me i.e. a lifetime’s worth of documents, memories, and passwords etc. -I 💤 much better at night knowing I am avoiding most if not all of the risks above.

Privacy

Normies often ask me some variation of:

Why do I care if corp. X has my data? I have nothing to hide!
Since I’m aware of targeted advertising, it won’t work on me, -so why should I care if corp. X has my data?

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To such questions, I follow-up with:

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Do you want to contribute to a dystopian (Orwellian future?
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If your answer is yes, then no need to read further, the following will not change your mind.

If your answer is no, but you aren’t convinced that/how these are related, -then the argument goes something like this…

We live in a world of mass data-collection/surveillance.
This enables corp. X to use techniques such as ML (Machine Learning) to build/train models (or “AI” - -Artificial Intelligence)that aim to predict human behaviour.
That by itself is not a problem here.
The problems arise when corp. X use these techniques for profit without -regard for the harm they cause at a population level.

I have unfortunately lived through enough of these cases to be able to cite a few recent examples:

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Instagram (etc.) designs its apps/products optimizing for maximum addiction¹. -Think slot-machines. -You might think you are “too smart” to fall for these tricks, and you might be right, -but what about the millions of adolescents using these platforms who aren’t as wise as you? -The data collected, and techniques developed from your usage enables platforms -to target not only you, but all users on the platform, including the most vulnerable.
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Unfortunately, many of these kids will end up suffering from mental-health, -body-image, self-esteem issues², -and for some it will be fatal. -I do not think this is morally acceptable, and is primary reason I refuse -to participate in social-media platforms.
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You could say “well that’s due to bad parenting”, but the point remains that -more and more of the digital world is having real world negative consequences regardless of -your individual participation level. Another example:

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By now its well known that Facebook’s (etc.) targeted advertising -played a significant a role in the 2016 US Elections³. -Facebook was able to do this thanks to its users voluntarily giving personal information for two decades. -However, the policies that come out of this election has real world consequences to millions -(if not billions) of people, regardless of their individual Facebook usage, which -undermines the very purpose of a democratic republic. -Regardless of your political affiliation, it should worry you that this can happen.
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To summarize, it might not be a problem if individuals disregard their -privacy at the individual level, but in aggregate, a population-wide disregard -has dystopian consequences.

So the question you have to ask yourself is:

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What can I do?
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Start by valuing your privacy. -Then, follow some of these tips to say no…

Limit your exposure to these services. If a friend stops talking to you because -of this, then congratulations, you’ve just gotten rid of a fake friend. You’re welcome.
Self-host -as much as you can. -You can see how I implement this and replicate it yourself, -though it is a bit involved for normies.
If neither of the above work for you, then you’ll need to do some research to -find an alternative source that you can trust isn’t doing the same thing. -Use this -as a starting point and try to search (Ctrl+f) for your service. For eg. Twitter, and -Instagram both have popular options available.
Stop using Chrome. If you must use it, use Brave instead. -I advocate for Firefox. -Neither are perfect, but both offer privacy respecting options in their settings. -Specifically disabling cross-site tracking is important. -Beyond that, install an ad-blocker extension such as UBlock Origin -on both of them. Don’t forget to do the same on your mobile device!
Things get more complicated on cell-phones. -I suggest switching to a privacy respecting operating-system such as GrapheneOS -Short of this, you can only limit your usage.
Support government policies that respect user-privacy.

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Digital freedom/independence

Privacy

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