I was watching Stacker News Live, live on Friday and @Car said something that triggered a memory. It reminded me of a response to personal privacy I have witnessed. I don't recall what he was talking about specifically but he expressed an emotion of dread. I got the feeling that it is a kind of hopelessness. In the realm of, what's the point? Why should I bother? There are many forces that can create this emotion. I have felt it as well. I still feel it from time to time. The feeling of, its too hard. I might do something wrong and screw it all up. Then what's the point of even trying.

This is a trap that is easy to fall into. We are propagandized pretty often by people in big tech to just believe and accept that privacy is dead. Of course that is a lie. We all have things we selectively reveal and no matter how open you are online there are things you keep private. Privacy is not secrecy. Privacy is a choice. So its not dead. But, if you think in this way you will not be careful about what you do and what you share. You drop your guard. But there is another type of person that can evoke this feeling of hopelessness. The "privacy advocate". In my social circle I sometimes were the hat of the privacy advocate. Through experience I have learned to be careful not to overwhelm people. It is easy to let perfection become the enemy of good. If I go to hard on the topic many, dare I say most people will just give up. This is because what I am saying to them is so radical. So different from their current view it is easy to reject as crazy or too hard.

So what's my point? My point is that each of us should take a look at ourselves. I can't do it for you, though I hope this will spawn some deep thought about how we communicate about privacy. Everyone doesn't need to be Edward Snowden but we all should be more aware of what we are doing online and offline. When we have folks in our circles that are concerned about privacy, we should be practical. What is their threat model? What do they care about? It is likely different from what we care about. Lets try to put ourselves in their shoes.

I often see good advice (depending on the situation/threat model) mocked as not good enough. I know that some of this is just bragging. But if that's you, don't kid yourself. You aren't an advocate. You are just bragging that you are in the circle. You're not a sheep. You're a wolf. That's fine. I do think there is a place for this. Even here on SN. We need to push back on companies and projects to make privacy a priority. But realistically, what will make these project grow is more people that want to be private. And if we aren't practical, helpful, and real we are gonna fail to spread the message of the value of privacy.