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An urgent ethical-tech warning about Meta’s Muse app, which launched just over a month ago and had an initial surge of downloads. It's early days but I've been researching what is currently known.

It could either take off or fade away but one thing stands out: Muse is a huge risk to your data and privacy.

Even if you don’t use it.

Let me explain why it fundamentally undermines so much of what privacy we still have online. One person's consent becomes a data pipeline for everyone in their contacts.

Muse, designed as a personal AI agent that has access to all your info and can actually do things for you (as opposed to simply answering prompts), works in part through wholesale relationship mapping - one person allowing Muse full access permissions (as it is designed to work) exposes the data, content, and relationships of everyone in that user's contacts. Starting with your phone number, which unlocks a lot. Early security reports indicate sometimes Muse takes access beyond even what users grant. There is no opt-out or way to block it, and you won't even know who is using it.

Not using Muse doesn't protect you and your data from Muse.

Just communicating with a Muse user becomes a risk. Once the user grants Muse access to, well, everything, your messages are readable regardless of the app you used - and can be used to harvest profiles of YOU.

Even your Signal messages and encrypted emails are not safe, let alone your texting and anything you put on any Meta app. Why? Signal and encrypted email like Proton protect against interception and from the service provider - but not against an over-privileged AI agent on your friend's own device.

It can read what they can read. Encryption becomes irrelevant.

I’m not an IT person and I’m still getting my head around all this from a layman’s perspective. For now, be on high vigilance, read up on Muse. Talk to your friends about not using it due to the massive (and non-consensual) data privacy risk even to non-users.

If it becomes entrenched - especially with some security flaws already identified and serious episodes already popping up - due to enough people enamored with having a 'helpful' agent, we are cooked. All online privacy - the little that’s left of it - gone.

Report: Pro-Human Assembly

In a Freudian slip, I almost typed ‘post-human’ for the title.

As ‘pro-human’ would seem to have a lot in common with my ethical tech concept, I applied to attend today’s Pro-Human (AI) Assembly in downtown DC and was accepted. I admit I was a bit afraid it would be mostly typical DC milquetoast policy discussion but there was plenty of fire, sharp presentations - and I dare say a note of panic.

Or at least true urgency. I’m still sort of processing it all. The thrust of the event was not anti-AI as much as how to build AI around human control, needs, and safety.

Now, before it’s too late.

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Which it almost is, according to many if not most of the presenters, amid ominous reports of rogue AI bot swarms already acting in surprisingly well-coordinated ways. There was some mention of the idea that AI might kill us all but I’d say more along the lines of AI becoming too powerful to reel back in, where humanity loses control irrevocably.

At the very least, the prospect is AI gaining the upper hand. Some argued AI is already out of control and is, as one speaker put it, “intrinsically unsafe”. Actor/activist Joseph Gordon-Levitt sent a call-to-arms video in which he admitted he was “scared”. Ashley Judd talked of “non-cooperation with oppression”.

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Ashley Judd

The temporary ‘slowdown’ the big AI companies are now proposing is thought to be insufficient at best, more likely a cynical diversionary tactic. Or perhaps they are spooked too.

There was plenty of guarded optimism though. In a somewhat perverse twist, one of the best reasons for optimism was the presence of none other than Steve Bannon.

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Bernie Sanders

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Steve Bannon

Bernie Sanders was there sounding the alarm of AI peril, along with others from both sides of the aisle. But somehow it was Bannon being not entirely repellent on this topic at least, fully on-side against the tech bros - “you can never trust what an oligarch says, they lie” - that gave a sense this is one thing we can all agree on.

Hyperbole and alarmism? Who knows, but the tone was determined not hysterical. There were certainly a number of bad-to-terrible possible outcomes outlined, based on where we seem to be heading with AI. I also came away with reasons to think we can rally to bring some sanity to the situation in time.

Either way, AI may not be inevitable but it is the proverbial genie out of the bottle. As one presenter said, whatever we come up with to control it will have to be sustained forever.

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I do think it’s imperative that the average person takes this seriously and tries to get aware and involved. One place to start for someone who doesn’t want to think about this stuff too much, as I explained to some people there during networking breaks, is my notion of demanding that all of our everyday apps - including your chatbot if you partake - meet basic ‘ethical tech’ criteria: data privacy, environmental protection, and integrity of ownership.

Want to stick it the bros? See my cheatsheet of ethical apps (expanded options here) that you can easily switch to in one sitting.

Yes we need to address the urgent, immediate AI issue. But I’d like to see a paradigm shift where ALL tech is held to account, now that we have more ethical options for just about everything we need to do online. You just have to be willing to make intentional, informed choices. There’s no excuse to continue to be wedded to the convenience of apps that come with too high of an ethical cost, like Google for example.

I can’t spell out all the proposed pro-human solutions here, for a deeper dive I suggest checking out the Pro-Human AI Declaration, currently at over a million signatures (including mine) and counting. Strong, sensible and lofty stuff. And the just-launched Pro-Human AI Coalition site.

I made a number of interesting and hopefully fruitful connections, though I have to say it was a bit harder than it should have been for an independent, willing, ethical tech/pro-human foot soldier to volunteer their services. We’ll see what comes of it.

Ethical App Report

Latest roundup of apps and platforms if you’re looking for ‘cozier’ options with more integrity and privacy (and less ick) than tech-bro/surveillance-capitalism models.

I’m not anti-tech, just want us to make better choices when we have them.

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Cantilever

Phone-only at the moment, this is the first app in a while that feels like a welcome and hopeful innovation for music. The big streaming services have been key villains in music’s devaluation. Yes, anything-for-free-all-the-time is nice for the listener but the basic equation for artists is they have traded actual sales of their music for a pitiful slice of the streaming pie.

The way Cantilever works is both simple and fairly wonderful. For six bucks a month (worth it, imo, and it goes to the artists you actually listen to) they recommend 15 albums at a time, each on the feed for 30 days. New ones are cycled in and older ones cycled out on a staggered basis. Each album has a thoughtful writeup to read while you listen, which is somewhat like the old days of looking at album art, lyrics, etc as the record played.

I haven’t done a deep dive into the money equation. But I saw that with 10,000 listeners, an album on Cantilever could earn for the artist the equivalent of over 1 million Spotify streams.

Yes, Cantilever is a boutique approach and no, they might not align perfectly with your existing tastes. But it’s a pretty diverse cross-section - and not just new albums. So far I’ve liked a good chunk of the offerings, even ones not usually in my wheelhouse. Personally I enjoy music shopping from a well-curated batch instead of the endless, deadening options of the major platforms. And the format does encourage slowing down to listen to the whole album as it was authored. How refreshing.

Cantilever is sort of a throwback to the music magazines of old like NME and Melody Maker. You counted on them for discovery. If you didn’t like who they pushed, you read a different magazine.

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Curb

I hadn’t given much thought to Uber on the ethical-tech front. I suspect you haven’t either, it’s a go-to app that most people don’t think twice about. Nonetheless, I just looked into it and turns out it’s a terrible choice. If you can avoid it, do.

It’s basically as bad as Google - harvesting everything it can to compile profiles of you across its services - plus that surge pricing and dodgy ownership (BlackRock and Vanguard). It’s a surveillance, gig-economy model. No, Lyft is not much better.

Uber and Lyft both use "surveillance pricing," adjusting fares based on your device type, battery level, location history, and perceived urgency.

Curb is for taxis. Remember those? It uses regulated meters or transparent flat rates, so the fare is determined by distance and time, not your personal data profile. The only data Curb collects is to facilitate you getting a taxi. No price surges. Taxi drivers are more regulated and background-checked than Uber drivers.

I haven’t tried it yet but I plan to. Curb sounds like a great addition to the ethical-tech toolkit. Uber could be minimized but still work as a fallback option. I mean, you don’t have to strand yourself for ethical street cred.

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Kagi

Kagi is an interesting and growing ecosystem, part of what has also been called the ‘cozy web’. All their platforms are privacy-focused, including a paid search engine, an AI called Kagi Assistant, and Orion anti-surveillance browser.

From their About page:

At Kagi, we envision a friendly internet where you can explore, learn, and interact with confidence and ease. Our mission is to humanize the web, making it more accessible, and centered around your needs. We're driven by our core purpose: to inform and educate, empowering you with knowledge and understanding in your digital journey. Every product we build reflects this commitment, designed without ads, trackers, or distractions, and completely free from surveillance.

To me, one of the most intriguing parts of their suite is Kagi Small Web (which has its own app), hosting a nice roundup of over 30,000 quirky, human blogs. Notice at the top there’s a button for all the different topics/categories. One way to browse a cross-section is via the ‘Liked’ tab.

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Euria

With the latest news of our possible impending demise at the hands of scheming agentic AI, I would be remiss to not give my regular reminder that there is an ethical-tech alternative to the US Big AI models.

Swiss-based Euria works well as an assistant (modeled as a ‘bright Swiss intern’) with proper guardrails. Your data is not harvested for any reason, it’s kept secure and private on their Swiss servers. This matters because anything on US servers can be requested by the government. Euria also takes care of the environmental impact of AI by using renewable energy and, in their unique innovation, repurposing waste server heat for local residential heating (which minimizes water usage to almost zero).

No, it’s not generative AI, it won’t make your band flyer or a fake photo or that what-I-looked-like-in-the-80s meme. But should you really be doing those things? It’s also not ‘agentic’ AI, which is the kind people are worried about getting too much of a mind of its own, pursuing its own goals.

I don’t let it write for me but I’ll let it speak for itself. If you use AI, I think you’ll find it a reassuring and responsible option:

With new reports of experts' fears of runaway AI taking over and killing humanity, how would you say Euria is positioned against those dark trends?

While some experts fear autonomous AI systems acquiring unchecked capabilities or acting against human interests, Euria operates under strict in-memory processing only, meaning it retains no data between sessions and cannot accumulate power, memory, or autonomous agency over time. It is hosted entirely in Swiss data centers powered by renewable energy, adhering to principles of neutrality, non-discrimination, and privacy.

Euria has no ability to act independently: it cannot execute code, access external systems, modify its own instructions, or interact with applications directly. It functions solely as a responsive assistant that analyzes documents, drafts content, and retrieves information only when explicitly triggered by user queries.

Furthermore, Euria is bound by ethical guardrails that prevent it from generating hate speech, inciting violence, or engaging in defamation. It is programmed to refuse executing illegal activities and to flag sensitive data appropriately. Unlike theoretical runaway AI scenarios where systems optimize for goals misaligned with human values, Euria has no goals of its own—its only purpose is to assist users within strictly defined boundaries.

Euria represents a model of responsible AI: powerful enough to be useful, but constrained by design to remain a tool under human control, transparent in its operations, and incapable of the self-preservation or goal-seeking behaviors that fuel existential fears.

Proton - Privacy *and* Sustainability?

New (to me) on the 'ethical tech' front: Proton - which you may know for their Swiss-based encrypted email/drive/cal/etc service - is in fact using renewable energy as well.

For the privacy-minded looking for mainstream options, nothing beats Proton. Now it turns out they are doing more than I thought on sustainable energy, especially important since they have AI as well, called Lumo. We are becoming all too aware of AI’s environmental cost. Add Lumo to the very short list of AI that take proper care of both your data privacy and the environment.

I use Proton and Infomaniak’s kSuite. Both are Swiss and protected by much better privacy regulations than US tech. Their suites are good at slightly different things. For example, kSuite is not as encrypted across the board but has Euria, the most eco-friendly AI, twice the Drive storage of Proton, and a WeTransfer-type app built in, which is awesome for delivering photos to clients. Infomaniak uses all renewables and even repurposes waste heat from their Geneva data centers, which minimizes water usage. And they are much cheaper than Proton. But I will say the UI structure of kSuite sometimes can be frustrating, Proton is an easier entry point to more-private email etc for the average person.

To me, ethical tech means data privacy and eco-friendliness should be the non-negotiables for your personal apps and platforms.

Pro tip: Google is not your friend on either count. But now you have two good Swiss options, beyond the clutches of typical US data harvesting and other intrusions.

https://www.devproblems.com/proton-sustainability/

Digital Sovereignty

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My Ethical Tech workshops at the local library went well the last two weeks. Though coming out of my second one I had a touch of actual vertigo, which was not fun but somehow apropos.

Even relatively tech-savvy people seem to understand there’s a problem but don’t quite have their heads around what they should do about it.

Yeah, I know, I’ve been beating this drum for a while but reclaiming our digital sovereignty is becoming more urgent, not less. At the risk of repeating myself, of being redundant, of saying the same thing over and over… (ok sorry, it’s a old Fraser line from Cheers ;), let’s go over this again for those in the back row.

The problem? Tech companies are basically spying on us. I don’t know what else to call it. Tracking us. Compiling that info with other info into profiles of us. Making money from selling that info. Cooperating with government requests for that info, or at best not securing it properly from hacking. All those AI prompts? Not secure. We shouldn’t be putting anything sensitive into AI.

I don’t think anyone really knows the full extent of what’s going on. The trail of our data online is long and opaque. The dovetailing of government and corporate surveillance interests is getting scary, and even to a casual observer is clearly in concert with the goals of the right-wing project overall (though data harvesting and tracking predates the current regime by many years).

I’m actually putting things mildly, trying to keep it breezy so I don’t sound a little too bug-eyed.

But I read recently that Google, Meta et al have received literally millions of data requests from the government in recent years, so it’s not an academic concern. According to this post, from the reputable German privacy-email provider Tuta, Microsoft was willing to shut down the email of the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor at the behest of the US authorities, throwing the ICC into turmoil.

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If data is the battlefield, choosing more privacy-centric apps is one of the most important things we can all do right now. Data they don’t have can’t be misused, surveilled, sold, or stolen.

“Well, I’m not doing anything wrong, so what do I care, I need the convenience.”

Trust me, that’s very ten-years-ago thinking, when we thought tech companies would do no evil. Our addiction is actually to convenience. It’s time to start being more intentional in our digital choices. Anyway, now we can have the convenience without the risk.

“I can’t, we use Google at work.”

So choose something else for your personal use.

What criteria constitutes an app or platform being ‘ethical’, or better aligned with your values? As I talked about in my workshops (and describe in more detail on my new Ethical Tech page if you’re interested), it’s a question of:

• Data privacy and security - First and foremost, good protection from surveillance, hacking, and corporate harvesting for ad profiles (especially as the line increasingly blurs between corporate and government profiling).

• Environmental impact - Is the company demonstrating commitment to sustainability? Does it use renewable energy? This is especially important for AI.

• Integrity of ownership - Is the owner a billionaire oligarch, or a freedom fighter? Is it a massive company profiting from our data and showing disregard for our privacy and rights? Is it a nonprofit? A plucky startup? What do their public statements suggest about their ethics and their vision for the company? I personally left one platform (Substack) based almost solely on public comments by one of its co-founders. Even vaunted privacy-centric Proton has fallen under suspicion in the past after some political comments by its head.

• Geography of ownership - What jurisdiction is it subject to? The US and Europe have different regulatory landscapes, in the US your data is far more vulnerable. Switzerland is not a total digital bastion by any means but some consider the Swiss to have even stronger shielding from foreign data requests than the EU. Such requests would have to go through a Swiss court, which would likely say no unless you are an actual fugitive. And no one is able to harvest your Proton data for ad profiling.

Geography is indeed important. Any information on or passing through US-based servers can be demanded by the US government. American tech companies’ servers based abroad are also subject to intrusion. At the moment the best protection, even for the average person, is European apps actually physically based in Europe. Europeans have arrived at the same conclusion, there’s a movement afoot to get off US tech entirely.

The exceptions would be smaller, non-bro US companies with a demonstrated independent, privacy-minded stance like Signal or DuckDuckGo. They are relatively immune to prying entities - because they don’t have your data, and what they have (encrypted Signal chats) they couldn’t read if they wanted to.

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So what should you do? I realize most people don’t want to think too much about this stuff - unlike me, waving hi from deep in the rabbit hole.

If I had to choose one app for each of our most basic daily tech needs, that balance the above criteria and are easiest to switch to, here they are again below.

None are perfect but all are excellent, user-friendly choices that will quickly and greatly shift your app landscape toward digital sovereignty. You can always just start using them and sundown the old ones gradually if needed.

• Signal is still the gold standard for encrypted messaging. WhatsApp is encrypted too but sells your valuable metadata (like your name and who you wrote to and when), Signal doesn’t take it to begin with. More of your friends are probably there than you think. The head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, is a bad-ass warrior for protecting your data. It’s US-based but a nonprofit. Clearly the government uses Signal too, so they can’t afford to undermine it.

  There really are no other good options. Well, there are but no one is there. It’s Signal or WhatsApp. Telegram is not secure and the owner is sus. You don’t have to give up WhatsApp necessarily, I use both since so many people especially internationally are on it. In Kenya it was a must-have.

• Proton is still the top choice for encrypted email and an app suite that can more or less replace Google Workspace, plus a good VPN and password manager, with the protection of both encryption and Swiss privacy laws. Now including a brand new Zoom alternative, Proton Meet. Keep in mind emails are not automatically encrypted unless sending from Proton to someone else with Proton. Otherwise it sends and receives normally unless you optionally encrypt the message with a password, which you send separately. It’s pretty simple, I use that for things like sending docs to our tax accountant.

• DuckDuckGo is US-based but a ‘good guy’, so far it hasn’t had issues with government overreach. An easy switch to one of the best privacy browsers and search engines, not just not tracking you but stopping others from doing so as you cruise the web. By contrast, Google tracks you even when you’re not using Google products. DDG’s search engine is good and the paid tier has a VPN and some other goodies like email protection.

• Organic Maps is free, non-tracking, no ads, open source, and uses downloaded maps that you can use without wifi or phone signal. The interface takes a few minutes to figure out but then you’re good to go. Google Maps works great, yeah, but it tracks the hell out of you. This one is pure integrity and worked great for me in Kenya, Europe, and the US. It’s awesome and very detailed for off-road navigation like hiking.

• Euria is your Swiss-based choice if you do use AI, which I am not advocating (for all kinds of reasons). Features both strong data privacy and environmental protection. They use renewable energy AND repurpose waste heat for heating local homes, so water use is minimal. No one else does this. A few like Duck AI and Proton’s Lumo offer good privacy but zero green credentials [Correction: turns out Proton does use renewable energy in addition to its excellent data privacy]. Euria has a very Swiss ‘personality’ - friendly and helpful but efficient, without the overly kiss-ass fluff. Minimal hallucinations, though they all get things wrong sometimes as you know. A friend who switched from ChatGPT for analyzing work documents is very happy with Euria.

You can also download this list as a PDF with links here.

Ethical Tech, Website Changes, and Keeping Busy

I didn’t have a photo for this week so I’m posting this iPhone pano from a few weeks ago, before the weather turned recently. It’s an unremarkable photo of an unremarkable spot in my neighborhood. I often walk through here on days when I work out of the local library and need to head to downtown Takoma Park for lunch. I took the photo on one of those walks.

There’s some kind of energy pocket there, I’ve noticed it twice as I’ve passed through. Something in the mix of sound and geography and atmosphere triggers memories and a certain vibe I can’t describe. I wanted to see if I could capture it somehow (nope), see if some clue would emerge, or at least it could help me remember the feeling. Have you ever been in a place like that?

I literally stopped and looked around trying to figure it out. It’s not even close to the most attractive part of the town but for some reason it always gives me a feeling of ‘I love this place’ combined with deja vu.

I have to say, I really do love Takoma Park, more and more. Especially after such a topsy-turvy past couple of years bouncing around, I’m grateful to be where I can go deeper rather than farther.

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Kind of a hodgepodge of updates today, sorry. A lot going on lately.

About a year ago I first wrote about Resistance Tech. Now I’m calling it ‘Ethical Tech’ which I think is more apt and approachable (if not as militant, though Ethical Tech is still a form of resistance). ‘Ethical’ meaning apps and platforms that help us get off the surveillance/data-harvesting model: a good balance of ease of use, data privacy, integrity of ownership, environmentally-minded, and ideally not based in the US to avoid government or corporate overreach.

I did a community workshop last week at our local library on all this stuff, and I’m doing it again this Wednesday. Went well, there seems to be interest. In an attempt to start putting resources and info together in one place I made a new Ethical Tech page on my website. Hope you’ll check it out, and let me know if I can help you stick it to our tech-bro overlords.

Getting set up (photo by Phil Shapiro)

I also added an Events page. Guess it’s an attempt to keep moving things off Meta and bring them here under one roof to my Squarespace. Though any event I’d post still needs to be shared to FB, so I dunno. You can drive yourself crazy :).

I reshuffled the site organization a bit to separate my main categories of photography, music, and tech. I didn’t really have a proper Music section at all before, my album was lumped together with my other projects.

Come on, Crandall, time to tighten your shoelaces since you’re getting out there more. Now at least I’ve got a little music bio and photos page in progress.

I don’t intend to say no to any paid gig at the moment (and I’m certainly doing plenty of unpaid). One recent paid one was at an assisted living place for St Patrick’s Day, so I learned like four Irish songs. Another one was a house party in VA, which sounded great until I got there and it was for like 2-3 families after their dinner. Then the kids had to get off to bed so it was an audience of like 5-6 people in the living room. I have to say it went well and they were lovely and attentive but um, yeah, felt a bit strange. Next up is a pool party in a couple weeks, glad I’ve been beefing up my covers list.

(Full circle, I think a pool party was one of my first band gigs when I was 14! Not sure if that’s good or pathetic…)

Recently I posted photos from our Sanctuary benefit show for CASA, which was standing-room only for our lineup of poets and singers. That was an offshoot of the Vocal Takoma popup thing we’ve been doing. Next up for VT is something we’re planning for outside People’s Book store, and we’ll be at the downtown clock tower on Sunday mornings in nice weather.

Photo freelancing is starting to show some signs of life, let me know if you need me. It’s actually been sort of energizing in a way to reassemble that former life of mine, get my ducks in a row.

I’ve got an idea for a zine.

Phew. It’s a lot, yeah. But with our family and job situations (IYKYK) still in flux I’m just pushing in every direction all at once with everything I know how to do.

The Tumblr Edition

Greetings from Nairobi.

If asked, I don’t really know how to describe what I generally post about. Sometimes it’s personal musings or updates, sometimes on photography in various ways, sometimes my music endeavors and various resistance-tech fixations. All are me trying to process life and ideas and share it out in ways that are hopefully interesting, relevant, and that respect your intelligence. To me, all have an undertow of mindful, art-based resistance, even if it’s not explicit.

Who knows if I’m doing it ‘right’? Maybe I should stay more focused. Or, maybe I need to mix it up more.

How would it look if I collected a couple weeks worth of stuff I’d normally post on social media and put it here? (That’s sort of what I was doing with my former Viaduct Arts newsletter, for those that subscribed to that. Viaduct was usually a compilation/digest of recent FB posts with a note from me at the top.)

What if you didn’t have to doomscroll on whatever platform to come across each individual post randomly, instead it all plopped as a bundle into your email on a Sunday morning?

It’s not a perfect experiment. Images seem to work best. I’m already discovering what wouldn’t work well in this space, like links, reels, anything not ‘evergreen’ enough to last more than a day. And of course it means you can’t comment or like the individual items.

There’s not as much to choose from since I like many others don’t post that much anymore, though FB is one of the few places I do. I barely look at Instagram, though it’s the only way to keep up with my Kenyan photographer friends. I dipped back into Threads the other day and it’s still way livelier discourse than Bluesky, which to my chagrin I’m beginning to give up on but I’ll leave that for another post.

In general I think the model of sharing broadly with strangers may be nearing a close. If there was a better way to share with friends and family that didn’t require wading through FB’s dreary AI slop or IG’s reels I’d sign up in a second. Otherwise I’m feeling a bit done. Anyone feel the same?

I’m more interested these days in what I’ve heard called the ‘cozy web’ - newsletters, groups, blogs. I’m liking good ol’ email, highly recommend Proton for the encryption. I’ve tried leaning into corresponding more substantively with a few friends via Signal, it’s been good. We’re so used to messaging being for quick hits, why not think of it like writing a more thoughtful letter or postcard?

Of course, I think many people are starting to remember that nothing beats in-person, real life interaction. And that might just be what saves us.

While on the subject of platforms, this is required reading about Substack. While it’s a place for valuable and interesting independent voices, it’s also a Nazi bar of sorts, comfortable enabling various creepy-crawlies:

Substack’s extremist ecosystem is flourishing

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How about more Tumblr-style? Just throw things out there. I know times are dire but maybe we are feeding the beast by focusing on it to the exclusion of all else. There has to be more to life than Wordle results and end-times fascism (aka ‘political’) news. Which I guess eliminates much of what I (and probably you) post on FB. Let me see what else I got.

A better idea than the real thing, though there are certain people I wouldn’t mind being flung into actual space.

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Remember magazines? The late Stockholm New was an amazing once-yearly (!) culture/art/fashion mag that I used to collect in the before-times. Didn’t know there was a ‘best of’ book. (Though I’ll admit that cover image sure lands more toxically these days…)

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It had beautiful minimalist design that I used in my Publication Design class. I sent it recently as inspo to a Kenyan friend who I’m helping develop a Nairobi art magazine.

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I think mags like Kinfolk and Cereal were pretty heavily influenced by Stockholm New.

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“I’m onboard with ‘clanker’ as a slur for robots and AI.”

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Cool micro art shop in Haworth, England. All work by the artist-owner (no I didn’t take this pic, just came across it).

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Samples from my World Landscapes print gallery.

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“Wet Leg. Hell of a band (and band name). New album Moisturizer is the finest rock record I’ve heard in a while.”

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“I had been reading good things about Superman. Ok, I saw it in French, which didn’t help. A lot I didn’t like but mainly methinks the director took the ‘let’s up the stakes by making him vulnerable’ thing too far. He spends the whole movie getting his ass kicked or crawling out from under the big thing that landed on him.”

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"Personally I am very pessimistic. But when, for instance, one of my staff has a baby you can't help but bless them for a good future. Because I can't tell that child, 'Oh, you shouldn't have come into this life.' And yet I know the world is heading in a bad direction. So with those conflicting thoughts in mind, I think about what kind of films I should be making." - Hayao Miyazaki

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This just in before I hit publish today, I’ll leave you with Robert Reich’s thoughts on Vaclav Havel and not letting the times suffocate us:

Havel had become politically active as poet, playwright, and dissident after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 — which put him under the surveillance of the secret police. He was repeatedly jailed, the longest from 1979 to 1983. (In 1989, his Civic Forum party played a major part in the Velvet Revolution that ended Soviet dominance, and he was elected president shortly thereafter.)

While in jail, Havel wrote something that seems particularly relevant for us in these very dark times:

“The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.

Hope is a not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.”

Resistance Tech

[This is an updated followup to my Substack post a while back, If It's a Digital Coup, It Needs to Be a Digital Rebellion]

“The defaults are becoming dangerous,” I said.

My friend, a pastor, looked at me for a long moment. “That’ll preach,” said the guy who writes a sermon every week.

We had just come from lunch, where I had given him my usual spiel about ‘resistance tech’, about how we urgently need a movement to reassess the apps we use: Google, Meta, X, Amazon. Apps and platforms that have been our popular, comfortable, and convenient defaults, the obvious mainstream choices, even as we ignored their data privacy perils for years.

Apps that have helped create - and continue to fund - the tech billionaires that now seem onboard with authoritarianism. We need to get out of their clutches.

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Dangerous?? Strong word.

But consider: does this one help someone surveil you? Does that one track everything you do online, or in real life? Did that one help create a billionaire that is now controlling you as much as serving you, and whose wealth is radically distorting our society and politics?

My pastor friend and I had been tossing around ways to hone the slogan version, the elevator pitch. ‘Non-cooperation with our own oppression’ was another good one of his.

On a walk later I thought of ‘boycott oligarch tech’. I’ve usually used ‘resistance tech’ or ‘rebel tech’ as shorthand.

It’s been surprisingly hard to get the pitch lingo right. I've got my first Resistance Tech community workshop scheduled for next month, so I need to be able to be clear, persuasive - and short. Like ten minutes total (it’s a slot at an unrelated neighborhood event), and I want them to leave with some new apps actually downloaded.

The idea itself is straightforward enough: easy replacements for the everyday apps we've become so used to, but are now becoming outright harmful or even, yes, dangerous.

My goal is a basic roadmap to a better everyday 'tech stack' for average people who don't want to think too much about this stuff.

People who don't particularly like change, but understand there's a problem.

A set of apps with all the functionality you need, a non-surveillance business model, and ethical ownership. Including apps not based in the US and therefore not potentially as vulnerable to American government interference or overreach.

We do have those choices.

Our money is a potent weapon and we don't want it going to the bad guys. Like how we might choose to shop local and not patronize companies that don't reflect their values.

And it works. It's certainly working against Tesla.

Now it's time to apply that to the tech giants that dominate our lives. Imagine if enough people did it.

Time to free ourselves, to disentangle from dependency on toxic tech.

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The good news is that it's easy to switch. Quality options are waiting for us. For a starter kit of daily apps, you could break it down into a few main categories, with solutions that you'll feel good about using.

Google, one of the worst culprits in collecting and monetizing our online activity, is of course many things: Chrome, search, gmail, maps are particularly egregious data harvesters. YouTube too, which is a Google product. And Google tracks you even when you’re not using Google. Countermeasures are needed. So Google is spread over multiple categories below.

The apps below are not the only good choices out there, just my suggestions. Your needs may vary of course.

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Messaging

Text/WhatsApp > Signal

Signal is the gold standard for encrypted messaging and voice calls. They don't collect any personal data when you use it (other than your phone number to sign up, which some people do complain about, but they don’t do anything with your number). As we now know, our government is using Signal, so they clearly think it’s secure.

User error notwithstanding, like accidentally adding the wrong person to your group chat.

Texting is inherently insecure (ask Mark Meadows or others after Jan 6th whose text messages were trotted out in court). Even US law enforcement recommends encrypted messaging, for the moment at least, after a major recent Chinese hacking incident.

WhatsApp is also well-encrypted but it’s a Meta product. While they can't read your messages, WhatsApp does collect other data like who you messaged, how often, what time, etc. WhatsApp has been problematic in the past with their handling of that data, and now Meta is currying favor with the regime. You do the math.

That said, WhatsApp’s encryption is the same as Signal and it is very popular worldwide. In Kenya, where I just lived for a year and a half, everyone uses WhatsApp. Less so in the US and more and more people are bypassing it and going to Signal for privacy and security.

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Browser

Chrome > DuckDuckGo, (also Vivaldi, Ecosia, Brave)

The Chrome browser, like all Google products, harvests your activity to build data profiles of you. Google has more on us than we care to imagine, which can have serious implications. See the link below for a great explainer.

A better option is a non-tracking, privacy-oriented browser with good-guy ownership like US-based DuckDuckGo - my recommendation - or others. Vivaldi (Norway) and Ecosia (Germany) are also very good and European-based if you're looking for that extra insulation from US policies.

Not only does DuckDuckGo not track you, it helps block Google trackers that follow you around the web even when you're not using Google apps themselves.

https://spreadprivacy.com/how-does-google-track-me-even-when-im-not-using-it/

Vivaldi (what I’m currently using) has some cool customization features and built-in free Proton VPN.

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Email | Drive | Calendar | VPN

Google > Proton

Proton Mail is based in Switzerland, which is therefore governed by strong Swiss protocols on digital privacy rights. You can send emails normally or with encryption.

Proton has long been the go-to for journalists, activists, and others with privacy concerns, recently it's becoming more mainstream.

The paid tier (about $10/month) has Drive and Calendar apps that work very much like Google, along with a password manager and a strong VPN.

The free Proton tier offers their email and basic VPN (more on VPNs below), which is hard to beat.

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Maps

Google > Organic Maps (also Maps.Me, HERE)

Do you want Google knowing everywhere you go? Because they do, Google Maps is tracking and compiling your movements and activities. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I can personally recommend Organic Maps, an open source, non-tracking phone app that doesn't collect your data. I've used Organic in Kenya and the US and I'm satisfied with it. The user interface is different than Google Maps, might take you a few minutes to learn, but it's simple and works great once you get the initial hang of it. I was especially impressed with its amazing level of detail for walking/hiking directions, even in the middle of a large park where it marked things like benches and shelter.

Organic Maps uses downloaded/offline maps by default, meaning you pre-download the map files for the country or region you're in. That way you don't need a data signal or wifi to use it, which could save your ass. Google Maps can do that too but it's harder to figure out how. With Organic it's easy.

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Social Media

X / Threads > Bluesky

Instagram > Pixelfed

Facebook > ?

Tricky. You don't want to lose valuable communities, groups, and connections, that's the tradeoff if you're trying to get off Meta.

There really isn't a good Facebook replacement out there. I tried Tribel but... yeah, no. I’m still on FB.

Threads is quite active, more two-way engagement than Bluesky, though your toxicity experience may vary. I find Threads substantive and civil, but kind of random. And unfortunately it's Meta. Your call.

Pixelfed is a new-ish, decentralized, European Instagram alternative. For photo buffs there's also the Foto phone app, also quite new. They both seem fine though truth be told, personally I’m a bit over sharing single images in that format. Seems a little pointless.

There's really no excuse for still being on X, Bluesky is a solid choice with non-oligarch ownership. While it can take time to get traction, it's a good place to follow your favorite commentators, news sources, and such.

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Search

Google > Ecosia, DuckDuckGo

Again, Google tracks and compiles everything relentlessly. That's how they make money.

DuckDuckGo and Ecosia are two search engines (as well as browsers) that don't. Both use Microsoft’s Bing. Ecosia plants trees with their profits. Both are lovely options.

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VPN

What's a VPN? A Virtual Private Network hides your activity from your internet provider. It also hides where you are, even what country you're in. Some people use this to watch international programming (like, say, sports in another viewing market). You just toggle it on, and choose a country to pretend you're in. That's it.

Some people might not feel the need for a VPN, but a non-tracking browser and a VPN is a rock-solid privacy combo.

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Shopping

Amazon > Shop local or direct from merchants

Yes, we are all addicted to the convenience of home delivery. Addicted enough to allow Bezos to be in the overlord suite? At least consider canceling Prime, and minimizing or eliminating Amazon shopping. You can always use it to find stuff, then go straight to the merchant.

For books there is bookshop.org if you don’t have a local bookstore.

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What about Apple?

Broadly speaking they are not the worst privacy offenders. They make their money from selling devices and hardware. They don't need to make money from your data, unlike Google or Microsoft.

If you have Apple products and apps at least use those. Compared to other mainstream options, the Safari browser or your Apple email are not terrible choices.

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A side note on encryption: since bad guys can hide with encryption too, there is a deep split playing out in Europe right now, between countries (like Spain and Sweden) who want to undermine encryption for the sake of fighting trafficking, drugs, child porn, etc, and others like Germany who defend the right to encryption for personal privacy.

There’s also a push within Europe to develop their own alternatives to US big tech. I came across this just yesterday on France 24:

Europe seeks tech independence amid strained ties with Trump's America

I don’t have all the answers. My Resistance Tech list doesn't address all the ins and outs of our tech dependencies but does offer a start towards digital liberation. A fresh start.

Feel free to write me with questions - or suggestions for my pitch!

Want a simple list with links to these apps? Download my cheatsheet here.

RSS is back (did it ever leave?)

I have to say I’m really liking using RSS again. I’m using the Feeder app, which is free and not hard to figure out how to use. It’s great for following independent news/info voices in one place. For me that’s rock stars like Rebecca Solnit, Heather Cox Richardson, Anne Applebaum, Jessica Berlin, Marisa Kabas, Alt National Park Service, and many others.

What I’d love to move towards over time is using this blog as social media. I’m already doing a post-here-first strategy, at least for my writing and photos, but maybe need to consider more social-type posts (like this) as well.

That way if you want to follow Bill, you come here. And bye bye Meta.

Tech Update: Beyond Signal

Important tech edition today for guarding your privacy. Two main things.

First, you need to know it appears that social media platforms are being monitored by the US government. That’s actually not new but it’s ramping up as part of the hunt for people to deport. Mostly related to Gaza/Hamas and foreign nationals for now but who knows where it stops.

My understanding is they are scraping *public* posts. But it’s interesting that WhatsApp is on the list. It doesn’t mean they can read your messages, which are encrypted, but does mean your data that WhatsApp collects (for example who you contacted and when) is also accessible via these tools.

Don’t make it easier. For example, if you post on FB please try to avoid posting with Public status. The value of FB is that you can post to your friends. Not sure if that’s foolproof but better than handing it to them.

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Second, I came across an article on Wired that you really should read in full. It turned a lot of my assumptions about encryption, including Signal, upside-down.

Yes, Signal is safe and is considered the gold standard of mainstream encrypted messaging apps. I know that regime officials in the US like Mvsk use it to coordinate their plans and activities.

But the question is where things are heading. That gets convoluted quickly.

Ready for your head to swim?

In the US, law enforcement that used to oppose encryption (since criminals and bad actors can also hide) now suggests that people use it if at all possible. So far that hasn’t seemed to change under Trvmp.

In Europe, generally a bastion of digital privacy rights, many countries actively oppose encryption (because of criminals and bad actors) and would like to undermine it. There is a deep split between countries like Germany that believe the personal privacy afforded by encryption is sacrosanct, and others like Spain who would like to ban encryption altogether for the sake of law enforcement.

Most proposed European legislation revolves around whether to allow governments a ‘back door’ to your encrypted messages, or perhaps to create a way for authorities to access scanned copies of those messages if they so desire. The UK already tried to strong-arm Apple into creating a back door (iMessage is encrypted), unsuccessfully for now at least. Sweden of all places has been mulling similar laws that Signal has said would make them abandon the country.

At best I can determine, those EU countries on the side of encryption are winning, but not by much.

It’s easy to imagine the US deciding to target Signal - a US-based independent nonprofit - if it becomes a last sanctuary of free, private speech. They could decide to ban or block it, as Russia did recently during the Ukraine war. Or simply revoke their nonprofit status on dubious grounds.

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What to do? Which basket to put your messaging eggs in, US or Europe? I have a recommendation as all this plays out:

Both.

1) Please get on Signal if you haven’t yet.

Signal is the new baseline, even for everyday communications. It’s considered by most people to be the best combination of top-notch security and good user experience. At the moment there is no threat to Signal that I’m aware of, only speculation of what the US government might decide to do in the future.

2) Get a Europe-based messaging app as a backup option.

In the same way that you should consider following non-US sources of news, you should consider where certain essential apps like messaging are based. The US is facing the unpredictability of what our authoritarian slide could bring. Europe is in better shape in that regard but there is future regulatory risk to encryption generally. [See update below or here]

There are several encrypted apps based in Europe that rival Signal. I would say few can match Signal’s combo of security, quality, features, and ease of use for those who don’t want to think too much about these things. But they’re all different and have their own pros and cons.

So which one to get? I did some extra research last night, digging into various reviews and comparisons where you get true geeks nerding out over this and that difference between apps. Spare yourself the aggravation.

I got it down to two, then one winner emerged.

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Threema

Threema is the closest to what I would call the European equivalent to Signal, with strong security protocols and a nice UI. Like Signal (and unlike WhatsApp) it doesn’t collect your data in the first place. It’s Swiss-based, which is a real advantage based on their strong laws around internet privacy. The Swiss don’t mess around, I didn’t see Switzerland on the list of countries pushing to weaken encryption. It is highly unlikely they will throw you under the bus at the behest of other governments.

Security-wise they seem pretty comparable. While Signal’s encryption protocols are seen to be the best, the app is not perfect. Critics say requiring a phone number for signup is a fundamental privacy liability. With Threema you can signup anonymously. You can choose to associate your contact info with your Threema profile, or not.

One small feature I like compared to Signal is that Threema actually has a contacts list tab. With Signal you can’t browse your contacts until you start a new message.

Maybe the main real drawback to Threema is that it costs six bucks on the app store. Might be a dealbreaker for some people. I see it as a positive, as it locks in their funding source. Signal relies on donations.

I had been ready to recommend one or two other strong contenders, like Matrix/Element, but for various reasons they didn’t seem as promising for popular adoption. Also Threema seems more polished and ready for primetime than some competitors.

While it’s fairly popular in Europe - several million users, though I’ve seen different numbers - you likely won’t find any of your peeps there at the moment (I had one, a security-conscious European friend). That’s ok. I think the important thing is to have an option for at least your inner circle in case Signal falters.

And for as many people as possible to agree on which option so we can find each other. I vote for Threema. I’m there already, find me if you take the plunge.

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Update March 21, 2025: Important news from EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

A Win for Encryption: France Rejects Backdoor Mandate

Home Renovations

If you’ve seen my posts in various places over the last few months, you know my tech recommendations in terms of digital privacy: Signal, DuckDuckGo, Proton, VPN, no Google, etc. It’s been a fair amount of work making those switches but super satisfying, even a joy. For example, I actually look forward to using the Organic Maps app, the open source alternative I found for Google Maps.

(I won’t rehash all that AGAIN. You’re welcome.)

Another part of the tech equation is where and how to forge a digital home in the Age of Broligarchy.

I haven’t quite left the old house of Meta and Google. I’m still on FB for my friends, until it’s untenable. I deactivated IG/Threads but haven’t deleted yet, in part because once my new home(s) are fully built I hope to get some of those followers to come with me. I’m almost off Google entirely.

I’ve been on a building spree lately on new platforms (some, like Patreon, I’ve built and already abandoned).

Allow me to map out what I’ve been up to. If you’re looking to do some renovations yourself, this might also serve as a useful overview.

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billcrandall.com (Squarespace)

After some concern that it was too stuffy and complex, I’m doubling-down on my long-time — and nearly comatose — Squarespace as my home base at billcrandall.com. I’m liking it a lot better since I finally got a grip on its features a bit more.

The landing page is a feed I will update often. I’m figuring out if RSS will work for it but hope you’ll consider old-fashioned bookmarking and check back sometimes. My goal is to work towards a website I refresh almost as often I would social media.

Ko-fi

I’ve linked other platforms to my Squarespace as well, including cozy but somewhat obscure ones like Ko-fi, a donations site for creatives. I’ve started using it as an experimental ‘photo cafe’ member space for photography questions, dialogue, feedback, even mentorship in exchange for pay-what-you-can. Or you can just make a donation anytime.

I’ve been working on translating my years of teaching to online material. I’m not there yet but eventually I plan to add a member page on Squarespace for photo dialogue and curriculum, which might one day replace the photo cafe on Ko-fi.

Darkroom

I’ve had people ask me about print sales, something I’ve wanted to set up for quite a while. So I’m now using Darkroom (via Squarespace) for fine-art prints on demand. They do their own shipping, including international.

There is a batch of Nairobi images in there for starters — part of processing the new work for myself — with new ones (and other projects) coming weekly for the foreseeable future.

Substack | Medium

This newsletter is currently here on Substack, which I like but increasingly I have my qualms. For one, you may have heard about Substack’s ‘Nazi problem’ — that their hands-off approach to content moderation allows actual Nazis to set up camp. Not many, but one is too many. Substack’s co-founder also had some sketchy pro-regime comments recently that for a lot of people raised doubts about whether Substack long-term is the safe sanctuary for creatives that it appears. You can read more here about the curmudgeon case against Substack.

Any of these platforms could screw you eventually, simply as a result of their own success. I’ll probably ultimately move the newsletter to Squarespace. Already I’m cross-posting these posts to my Squarespace blog and longer pieces to Medium.

My plan is to operate as centrally as possible from the real estate I ‘own’ and control. That’s Squarespace. Need a good foundation for a homestead.

Bluesky

Bluesky is going ok. Not the liveliest place, takes a while to get traction, but it’s a good, non-toxic replacement for Twitter. At least it’s not Meta like Threads. I have to say the quality of chatty convo is better on Threads if that’s your jam. Following news and commentators is better on Bluesky and you can organize a feed of just your friends.

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The question of digital homebuilding is also different for artists. How to not just showcase your work on a static portfolio site but create a more dynamic space?

How to connect, engage, and even create community?

How to present your work as having relevance and value beyond a click or a like?

As I’m now a former teacher and back to being a photographer (albeit someone who can’t work here in Kenya, and will be unemployed when I get back), these are questions I’m wrestling with.

For starters, to me relevance means combining my images with writing in new ways — both my new Nairobi series and older work that I’m taking a fresh look at — to expand the context, process, and stories around them. Also using archive images to illustrate posts like this one.

Value means offering ways to buy the work and/or support me directly in other ways. Otherwise a website is only the dreaded word for freelancers: exposure (what everyone wants to give you, in the hopes that someone else will pay you).

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I hope you’ll find me in my non-oligarch homes. None are fully furnished yet but all are quite presentable, so I’m giving you all the house tours first.

Notice none of them benefit our worst bro overlords. And none of it involves doomscrolling. So more of the time I spend online is actually creative and productive instead of mindless and passive (though the struggle is still real).

If you’re already a subscriber thanks for sticking with me. As a digital semi-nomad (ironically writing about home-building), I hope my newsletter can at least be my small contribution in defense of art and culture and stubborn optimism.

As someone (cough) just put in my new bio on Squarespace, I do have a track record as “a warrior for truth-telling, empathy, community, education, and change through the arts”. Yeah, that’s quite the immodest mantle to claim but it’s true and I have receipts. That’s what I’m trying to build on, especially in this moment.

If you want to support me further, please consider:

- Upgrading to a paid subscription

- Sharing the photo cafe with someone who could benefit from my help with their photography (or signing up yourself so I can help you!)

- Buying a print

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For those who actually read this far, bless you. It’s a lot, I know! Here’s the roundup with links:

• billcrandall.com — My main Squarespace website, personal blog, print sales, etc

• Ko-fi — A photographer support space (also integrated into Squarespace)

• Darkroom — Print sales (also integrated into Squarespace and Substack)

• Substack — My newsletter on photography, ‘future-music’, and how art can save us

• Medium — Longer-form writing

• Bluesky — Find me if you’re there

Hope you’ll visit and be in touch. Keep the faith, power on.