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entries/privacy-matters.md
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---
title: "Privacy Matters"
author: "Anton McClure"
date: "2020-03-12"
published: true
---
Originally published on [antonmcclure.com](https://www.antonmcclure.com/blog/120008-privacy-matters)
---
There's no doubt to many people that we are living in a highly-connected Internet age full of big data. As the amount of big data goes up, so does the importance of protecting people's privacy. After the GDPR took effect in May 2018, sites were required to say when they'd use cookies, and what those cookies do.
However, for many websites, the *cookie consent* banners still [broke the law by making it hard to reject all tracking](https://www.zdnet.com/article/cookie-consent-most-websites-break-law-by-making-it-hard-to-reject-all-tracking/), were [manipulative or completely meaningless](https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/10/most-eu-cookie-consent-notices-are-meaningless-or-manipulative-study-finds/), and sometimes were used to [undermine the user's privacy](https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/10/cookie-consent-tools-are-being-used-to-undermine-eu-privacy-rules-study-suggests/). What do companies do with these cookies and trackers behind the scenes that they might not want us to know about?
# Why do People Use Cookies?
Companies and people use cookies for analytics, ads, security products, and more. This is often to just find how sites are being used and what content is popular, but it's often for money and maximizing profit off of user data. This data, for some sites, include personal details such as your full name, usernames, home address, email address, Social Security number or National Identification number, passport or Federal ID info, credit/debit card info, date of birth, phone numbers, login details, and much more, along with linkable information such as first or last name alone, country, state, province, city, gender, race, age, job, position, and workplace. What many don't know is how this data can get used if in the wrong hands: to track where users go online and offline to target the user with ads based on their online and offline activities.
Privacy policies exist to let users know how their data gets used, but you'll have to put blind trust in these documents, and hope that nobody is still [violating user privacy](https://medium.com/bestcompany/5-companies-that-have-been-caught-violating-their-customers-privacy-9cfe660ea3eb).
# Solutions
Several browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox have extensions as well as privacy and security options that you may use to block various trackers, cross-site content, crypto miners, fingerprinters, or even all third-party and first-party cookies. Blocking all third-party and especially first-party cookies, however, may cause websites to break if they're used to store preferences or login info.
Make sure you thoroughly go through Terms of Services and Privacy Policies before signing up for a service. Even then, you can't be sure that companies are going to follow their own terms.
# In the End
There's no doubt that privacy matters in a world full of tracking and surveillance nearly everywhere. We shouldn't have to put up with or end all tracking, but we need to promote the idea and help people understand privacy matters.

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entries/what-are-tildes-and-how-you-can-use-tilde-computing.md
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---
title: "What are Tildes and How You Can Use Tilde Computing"
author: "Anton McClure"
date: "2019-09-12"
published: true
---
Originally published on [medium](https://medium.com/@antonmcclure/4373bdabbc6a).
---
A quickly-growing community that started from a couple of drinks.
## What are Tildes
A tilde server is a public access server running any operating system. These servers are hosted in various ways on various technologies, ranging from a Raspberry Pi at someones home, to powerful dedicated servers in the Cloud, and nearly everything in between.
The first tilde known as [tilde.club](https://medium.com/message/tilde-club-i-had-a-couple-drinks-and-woke-up-with-1-000-nerds-a8904f0a2ebf) by Paul Ford, started in 2014, provided shell accounts and basic services for its users. However, it grew quickly leaving the admin unable to handle all the new user requests. Due to its growing waitlist, different servers became available. Many of these are now defunct, but some of them still exist to this day. Many of these tildes were exclusive/limited to members only, and services were mostly or completely intranet-only. While there were efforts between some tildes to combine services, most of their efforts fell flat. One of the successful efforts started with a group of tilde servers making a shared IRC network known as [~chat](https://tilde.chat/), which grew as more tildes were made and joined. This group eventually became the loose association known as the [tildeverse](https://tildeverse.org/).
## What do Tildes Do Different
The tildeverse allows learning and using UNIX, Linux, BSD, and other operating systems without having to have the system installed on your computers or servers. When members were asked, the common responses were that tildes are free, not for profit, inclusive, everyones welcomed, and is seen as a safe place for pro-foss beliefs and homebrewed tools.
Despite most similar services requiring a paid membership, or being completely paid, the tildeverse offers many things for free with optional donations.
## Introducing: Tilde as an Example
Tilde as an Example is a planned series that takes a look at one or more tilde servers, and uses them for testing, development, demonstration, and other various uses. This also utilizes tildes to their full potential and incorporates innovative and modern technologies within tilde environments.
Being an open environment, readers are free to try Tilde as an Example things for themselves.
## Getting Started with Tilde Computing
Any server can become a tilde server easily. All thats needed is a basic server (running any operating system) and a community of users.
If you find tildes interesting or want to join the tilde community without the required setup, Id recommend joining either [YourTilde](http://yourtilde.com/) by [deepend](https://deepend.tildecities.com/) (located in Canada), or [Thunix](http://thunix.net/) by [ubergeek](http://thunix.net/~ubergeek) (located in Germany). Both tildes provide many great services, primarily use only free software, and both run on powerful servers. Accounts for these and other tildes are also available for free.
For those who are already a tilde member, what do tildes mean to you?