Why YouTube always feeds me boat videos

I'm a bit of a privacy zealot.

Not in a tin foil hat kind of way. (Well, I guess I am always a bit concerned that the tin foil hat people don't know they are wearing them...)

But I hate how much info we put out there about ourselves. And for the most part we do it without realizing what we are giving away.

Most people I chat with about this sort of thing have the same sort of response...

Google, et al already knows/can find out everything they want about me.

And for most people that's true. But why?

Mostly because you gave them the info. For free.

Have you ever heard the saying "If the product is free, you are the product"?

For Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, it fits. The tools are genuinely great and they genuinely improve your life. You just pay with yourself instead of money.

Your data is the price.

But it's not a perfect rule. Some of the best privacy tools out there are free and they're not selling you at all. Signal. Bitwarden. GrapheneOS. Built by people who think your information should stay yours.

So "free" isn't really the question. The question is who profits. And how.

So take a step back and ask yourself...

Who am I trusting with all of my info?

And more importantly...

Why?

For most people the honest answer is... I never decided. I just clicked agree.

You can do better than that.

All the best,

John

P.S. Not advice or recommendations. Do your own homework.