Outlook on Privacy Advocacy in 2023

Privacy and Security Discussions
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We’re in the last quarter of 2023 and I think it’s healthy for us to take a look at where privacy advocacy stands now.

We’ve now got multiple channels across the privacy and security community that exist in the 200k to the nearly million subscriber range with Techlore, All Things Secured, NBTV, Chris Titus Tech, etc.

Obviously, there’s a lot of room to grow, but there’s also a lot that’s been accomplished.

Millions around the world have been introduced to FOSS and more secure, privacy-respecting technologies thanks to the work being done.

I think the only issue that we’ve been having is trying to reach younger audiences.

Long form content works really good for the 16-24 demographic, however, if we want to reach younger audiences as well, we need to branch into short-form content audiences as well.

As well, we gotta hit harder on the most popular services. Press on the continued issues of Google and Facebook.

A good example was the video Techlore made about the Threads app. It was topical, appealed to a younger demographic that might be trying out the platform, and presented concise, quality commentary about why Threads should be avoided.

If we could take content like this, cut it down into short-form content, and distribute it to places like TikTok and YouTube shorts, we could really get some traction.

I’m open to hearing others out on this though. I’m very optimistic for the privacy movement from what I have seen.

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I think trying to reach a younger demographic is a lost cause.

  1. Growing up, kids tend to follow their parents habits, and later, their friends habits. The last thing a kid wants to do is learn, after several hours of learning.
  2. A lot of edutainment can be very cringe, or preachy. Both of which will put off a younger demographic. At best, you can expect a eye roll, while they go back to their social media feed.

When growing up I pretty much ignored anything that seemed, or tried to appeal to children. If it even gave a whiff of “made for children/teens”, I’d move on. I wanted to grow up as soon as I could. I personally believe that we need to get the information out there, both with video and written media. Don’t split audiences by age, split them by technical knowledge.

Lastly, I should note that even if those channels have hundreds of thousands of subs, remember a lot of those are going to belong to the same person. For example, if you’re subbed to Techlore, you’re likely to sub to NBTV. Should also note that NBTV, Techlore, and All Things Secured do clips/shorts content, if that’s what you’re looking for.

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Being a uni student myself, I can support your statement. I myself am rather privacy conscious, but several of my peers are of the opinion that they have nothing to hide etc. etc. etc. and they think that their data is useless anyways so there’s no need to care unless they end up being whistleblowers.

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The younger audience mostly doesn’t care because this is the type of world they grew up in. Adults got to see the slow creep of big tech into every facet of life, but younger people never witnessed such progression. The only way younger people have privacy concerns is if they: a. learned about the history of privacy and care about the impact on their own, b. introduced to it by the people around them, or c. forced to adopt privacy as a response to a disaster (extreme cyberbullying, identity theft, teen pregnancy in an abortion prohibited state, etc).

Adults in general will have to take the initiative themselves to advocate for privacy first, and set an example to the youth.

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Age is not a factor for me to define an individual, technical skills either. Finding the right tools for an individual is defining.

Appreciate the reflection of our current time as privacy advocates. As I reflect this week two people stand out, the tool which we discussed were the same for different reasons. The ages were similar but definitively different stages of life and technical skills.

Privacy is a human right. The basics of privacy are not complicated. Do not play and you win. The more tools to win the better for sure. Teaching folks how to find and use tools to thrive not just live privately is getting easier.

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