Wait? What’s wrong with Twitter? YouTube or XYZ platform? These apps are centralized, are funded on advertiser’s whims. Need non-free software to run. Hard to scale or port. Unnecessary walled - gardens that keep normal users who don’t have an account - out. I don’t like centralized social media anymore. I think it isn’t worth my time in the long run. I switched to something called the fediverse which I covered in my last blog-post....

China; heard about China in these recent days? The app bans and censoring websites of Chinese origin under the so called name of national security & privacy of Indian citizens? Geopolitics reigns, the real issue of data-protection & privacy is not talked about. While I think we should not use apps that collect this much data, I would never bar someone or ban/censor apps. You got to respect net-neutrality. Censorship is fuel to the fire!...

The quickest way to call me? 🤙 VoIP calls: polarhive.ml/contact A dilemma ~ privacy? or instant connectivity - you can’t have both There’s the obvious privacy issue, the cellular radio in the phone is screaming all day to towers near you to keep you connected 24/7 wherever you go. I have the phone app disabled on my phone. Airplane mode turned on and only rely on WiFi for my internet When using a SIM, there’s no guarantee that calls and SMSs are not intercepted....

Unblock domains, access websites freely & securely Tor stands for ~ The Onion Router. I’ve often recommended people to use the Tor Browser when using the internet. I don’t think pseudo-privacy-browsers like Brave or Firefox can ever match the protections offered by the Tor Project. First, it masks your true IP address. when expecting real privacy when browsing the web. This article is a quick how to guide on circumventing censorship online using the Tor Project....

Without the big 5 tech titans. Utilizing FOSS/Libre software Here’s what’s different from your average expectation from a phone It runs Android, without pinging Google or other such servers without me telling to do so. No ads, spyware, lag or battery draining apps. No Google apps, none of the infested Facebook apps, Tencent, WeChat, TikTok whatever that mistreats me, the user. There are better alternatives to WhatsApp for example. You probably haven’t tried it because you’d have to migrate your entire social graph there - it’s called the Network Effect....

“Imagine Instagram allowed users to follow and like Tweets through the Instagram app; vice-versa” Social media is about connecting people right? Such Corporate speak! Much like the earlier days of the internet where you can host a personal website, not having to worry about walled gardens or ‘signing-up’ to view simple photos & posts. Modern centralized social media isn’t about ‘connecting people’ - excuse the Mark Zuckerberg corporate speak. Protocols, not new platforms Turns out, the clever people at W3C have already proposed a protocol; Protocol you ask?...

Facebook is not going to break up and sell WhatsApp and Instagram anytime soon It’s up to the user’s to defend for themselves, you are at their mercy when fighting for privacy on a platform that lives by selling your data. Breaking up? - a silo like Facebook unfortunately controls our social relations. Facebook hacks into our social life emotions, the fun moments we share & with our friends and family is associated with Facebook....