LarrySanger.org

Category: Theory

  • Is Western civilization collapsing?

    A perennial topic for me (and many of us) is the notion that there is a deep malaise in Western civilization. There are, it seems to me, three main camps on the question, “Is Western civilization collapsing?” 1. The conservative position. “Yes. And it’s a horrible thing. For one thing, elites have basically stopped reproducing.…

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  • How I replaced Dropbox

    Updated April 2 at bottom. My main beef with Dropbox is that it’s not secure, not adequately encrypted, and there’s been a little too much indication that Dropbox is spying on user data. Ever since I decided to lock down my cyber-life, I had Dropbox in my sights. It was going to be a pain…

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  • How and why I got a VPN

    As part of my ongoing efforts to lock down my cyber-life, I finally decided to investigate VPNs (virtual private networks) and subscribe to one, if it seemed to be a good idea. Well, it is a good idea. So I got one, and it was pretty cheap. What is a VPN, anyway? A virtual private…

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  • A reply to Mark Zuckerberg’s “Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking”

    Yesterday (March 6), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined Facebook’s new “vision and principles around building a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform.” The essential problem isn’t that they need a new app; rather, they need to reform their existing one. Rather than acknowledging the elephant in the room—that users are deeply incensed that their privacy…

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  • How to decentralize social media—a brief sketch

    The problem about social media is that it is centralized. Centralization empowers massive corporations and governments to steal our privacy and restrict our speech and autonomy. What should exist are neutral, technical standards and protocols, like the standards and protocols for blogs, email, and the Web. Indeed, many proposed standards already do exist, but none…

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  • My Facebook #DeletionDay goodbye message

    Here’s what I posted as my last long message to Facebook. Folks, as previously announced, tomorrow will be my #DeletionDay for Facebook. It’ll be the last day I’ll post here, and I’ll begin the process for the permanent removal of my account. (Among other things, I’ll make a copy of my data and my friends list.)…

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  • How deep should one go into this privacy stuff, anyway?

    Probably deeper than you thought. Here’s why. If you are convinced that privacy actually matters, and you really want to lock down your cyber-life, as I am trying to do, there are easy options, like switching to Brave (or Firefox with plugins that harden it for privacy). I’ve done that. Then there are more challenging…

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  • Join me on my new friends list

    > Go here to subscribe < My theory is that people have a hard time keeping away from Facebook because Facebook scratches a certain kind of online socialization itch. Well, since I’m leaving Facebook on #DeletionDay (Feb. 18), I reasoned, I should provide another outlet for that socialization behavior. But I wanted to be in control,…

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  • Why I quit Quora and Medium for good

    It’s not a temporary rage-quit; I’ve deleted both accounts. I have zero followers, no content, and no username. I’m outta there. This is going to be more interesting than it sounds, I promise. When I first joined Quora in 2011, I loved it, with a few small reservations. Then, after some run-ins with what I…

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  • A plea for protocols

    The antidote to the abuses of big tech is the very thing that gave birth to the Internet itself: decentralized, neutral technical protocols. The thought that inspires my work. Ever since I started work on Nupedia and then Wikipedia, a thought has always inspired me: just imagine the stunning possibilities when people come together as…

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