Move blog to WriteFreely
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title: {{ replace .Name "-" " " | title }}
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authors: []
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@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ menu:
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url: keys/
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- name: Blog
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weight: 4
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url: posts/
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url: https://write.data.coop/sam/
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- name: Privacy Policy
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weight: 5
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url: privacy/
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@ -71,11 +71,6 @@ params:
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icon: fa fa-2x fa-git
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url: https://git.data.coop/samsapti
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rel: noopener noreferrer me
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url: posts/index.xml
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type: application/rss+xml
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- name: Onion service
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icon: fa fa-2x fa-tor-onion
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url: http://mldhltdackluvnqso7vk2azcg3ghjxbpw4im6alubymqkonb4kppqcqd.onion
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---
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draft: false
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date: 2023-07-16T16:52:06+02:00
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title: I'm Back on Mastodon
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description: In this blog post I describe why I decided to get back on Mastodon.
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authors: ['Sam Al-Sapti']
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tags: ['decentralization', 'privacy', 'fediverse', 'social media']
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series: []
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---
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May 1, 2023 marked one year since I deleted my Facebook account. That was the
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last account I had on the Big Tech social media platforms that all compete for
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our attention and behavioral data (technically I'm still on LinkedIn, although
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I rarely use it). How has it been? To say it mildly, liberating.
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Last summer, after reading *Digital Minimalism* by Cal Newport (fantastic book
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by the way, you should give it a read if you haven't), I also deleted my
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Mastodon account. At the time, I thought to myself that I really only used it
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as I used to use Facebook, wasting my time, and I probably did. Thinking back,
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I did really need a break from social media in general in order to get my mind
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back on track, and I'm glad I made that decision. I was still too used to
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Facebook and the likes. After deleting everything, I used the extra time I
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suddenly had to focus on life and finish my bachelor's degree. Now a year
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later, I decided to join the Fediverse again, so I created a new [Mastodon
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account](https://social.data.coop/@sam). I did so for a couple of reasons.
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The primary reason is that I felt a bit too disconnected from the online world,
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and since my career and interests are in IT, that didn't work for me. It is
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true that the best form of social interaction is outside the screen. But in the
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modern world we live in, technology can add substantial value to your life,
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**but only if you use it properly**. The book *Digital Minimalism* taught me
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what "properly" means (again, read it). By not being on any form of social
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media, I wasn't able to keep track of what the latest trends are and what
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people are talking about at the moment (in general but mostly regarding IT).
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But also just when it comes to meeting new people, or maintaining a network, or
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finding out about events happening near me. By using technology in a way where
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it enhances my life, instead of the opposite where the technology uses me, I
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can actually get some value from it. Although I'm back on social media, I
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believe I have the tools and the knowledge necessary for maintaining a healthy
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relationship with social media and my usage of it. For this reason, I've also
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decided that I won't ever support the attention seeking social media platforms,
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that is social media owned by Big Tech. Because let's face it, we can't really
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have a healthy relationship with a social media platform if it keeps trying
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with all its power to get us hooked onto it and get us sucked into its reality,
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it's simply not possible.
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This leads me to my second reason. In order to support the world-wide migration
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to decentralized alternatives to Big Tech, I need to be on there myself. That's
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the best way to show my support for the Fediverse. Looking at the recent
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conflicts with Big Tech platforms, such as the changes in the Reddit API or
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Elon Musk buying and basically destroying Twitter as we know it, this is the
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best time to do so. I want to be a bigger part of that movement. Right now is
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the time where most people are starting to realize, that big centralized
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platforms maybe aren't the best option out there, and that decentralization is
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the better way.
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So, to summarize, did I regret leaving Mastodon? No, I didn't. But I'm glad
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that I'm back in the Fediverse, and I'll continue to support the move towards
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decentralized platforms. I truly believe that this is the right path forward.
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@ -1,97 +0,0 @@
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---
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draft: false
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date: 2022-05-29T16:10:46+02:00
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title: Why I Switched From Proton Mail
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description: This blog post explains why I chose to switch away from Proton Mail.
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authors: ['Sam Al-Sapti']
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tags: ['cryptography', 'decentralization', 'email', 'pgp']
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series: []
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---
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I wanted to write this blog post (and by the way, this is my first) to shed
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some light on my recent choice of email provider. You see, Proton Mail is a
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great email service, and I've used them for years, but it just doesn't fit my
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needs anymore. This is due to a number of reasons, but it's primarily due to
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some issues with external PGP handling (I'll talk more about this later on) and
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their recent change of direction.
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## Centralization and Proton's new direction
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One of the main reasons I chose to switch, is the new direction Proton is going
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in. Recently, they've revamped all of their products and their website, to make
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it more clear that both Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Calendar and Proton
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Drive is under the same family/suite (notice how there's a space now in their
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product names, that's one of the changes). All of this is great for many
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reasons, now it actually feels like an alternative all-in-one solution to
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something like Google's, and I'm sure this will benefit them in the long run
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and appeal to more people. A lot of people like these kinds of ecosystems,
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because it usually increases ease of use and convenience. In fact, this change
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now allows Proton to better integrate their products together. For example, you
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can now easily send large attachments via email, by letting Proton Mail
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automatically upload the file to Proton Drive and send a share link in the
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email, instead of attaching it in the email itself. All of the changes are
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outlined in [this article](https://proton.me/news/updated-proton) by Proton's
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CEO, Andy Yen.
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Personally though, this does not appeal to me. I'm not a fan of ecosystems and
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having all my eggs in one basket, and I'm a huge fan of self-hosting. You see,
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I'm a big proponent of decentralization. One aspect of decentralization is to
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not have everything in one place, when you don't control that place. For
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example, I wouldn't have both my email, calendar, contacts and cloud storage
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with Google, and neither would I with Proton. Instead, I self-host my cloud
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storage, calendar, contacts, to-do lists, and notes with the help of
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[Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com) at home on a Raspberry Pi. This way, even
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though it's all in one place, I'm the one in control of the server hosting it
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and what happens with it.
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I can definitely see why Proton chose to go in this direction, and I fully
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support them. But they should also expect, and I'm sure they did, that some of
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their customers wouldn't want this change of direction. I have nothing against
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Proton as a company, but having my digital life centralized with one company is
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just not my cup of tea.
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## The way Proton Mail handles PGP
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Proton Mail offers zero-access encryption of your inbox, meaning all of your
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emails are encrypted, and only you have access to read them after unlocking
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them with your password. Behind the scenes, this works by each customer having
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a PGP key pair stored on their servers, with the private key being encrypted by
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the customer's password. This means that not even Proton themselves can read
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your emails, and this is great for privacy.
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PGP has been a standard for email encryption for many years, and it's widely
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used for sensitive communication via email. Proton has taken PGP and integrated
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it into their email service, automatically providing end-to-end encrypted
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emails between Proton Mail users (it also works with other email providers, but
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it requires some setup by the communicating parties). The thing is though, that
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you're not in control of the private PGP key when using Proton Mail's PGP
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integration. Even though it is encrypted on their servers, and only I can
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decrypt it, I want to be in control of my private key myself. This also relates
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to the centralization problem I described above. By using Proton Mail, I
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entrust my email security with a central entity.
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This one is more on the technical side of things. I've had some not so great
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experiences when trying to use my own PGP key on top of Proton Mail's
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encryption. For example, my signatures wouldn't be recognized by the
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recipient's email client, due to the second layer of encryption that is Proton
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Mail's PGP integration. Because I want to use my own PGP key, that I'm in
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control of myself, this doesn't work for me.
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## Conclusion
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With all that said, I want to end this blog post by saying this: Don't go ahead
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and delete your Proton account solely based on what I'm saying. This is my own
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personal opinion. If you're someone who's not very technical and/or are
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satisfied with what Proton is offering, then stay. I'm not here to trash talk
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Proton and tell everyone to abandon them. I think Proton offers some great
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privacy preserving services and their line of products is perfectly suitable
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for a lot of people, and their work is important in the privacy world. I'm just
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someone who's a bit more technical than the average person, and because of
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that, Proton Mail is just not a fit for me personally. For the average person,
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Proton is fantastic, and I can only recommend them if you're wondering which
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email, VPN, calendar or cloud storage provider to use.
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You might be asking, what am I using now then? I'm now a happy customer over at
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[mailbox.org](https://mailbox.org), and if you're like me, you should totally
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check them out. If not, go ahead and keep your Proton account (you have one,
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right?).
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