Every time you use a free app from a big corporation, you're making a trade. Take Instagram for example:
What you're giving them:
Your public persona (what you knowingly share) but also
your private self (what they quietly extract):
- your location
- your private messages
- your purchases
- your browsing habits
- your relationships
What you're getting:
Social network and messaging but also
This is a terrible deal. You're handing over your data—the raw material of the modern economy—in exchange for apps that are engineered to waste your time and sell you things.
Off the top of my head here's a list of evil corporations (evilcorps) that abuse privacy:
These companies don't just collect your data. They use their profits to buy power: lobbying politicians, manipulating public opinion, enforcing systems that benefit them at everyone else's expense. The fund environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and the endless firehose of advertising to whitewash their impact and keep you coming back.
In our hyperfinancialized economy, these corporations have one goal: maximize shareholder value. Every system within them exists to serve that goal. Google literally cast off the proverbial shackles of "Don't be evil" in pursuit of profit.
Since stocks are the default retirement plan for American adults, white-collar workers are motivated by self-preservation to keep the machine running. In their minds, the world economy depends on them growing profits quarter after quarter.
Two things unify all these companies: they collect as much of your personal data as possible (and you don't even know what they're taking), and they make enormous profits that they use to accumulate more power and control.
What do they do with your data? They process it to sell you more stuff. They sell it to others. They train their closed-source AI models with it. Your public posts, your DMs, your likes, your payments—all of it gets fed into systems designed to create more addictive products and more targeted advertising.
Their preferred method of extraction is the mobile app: a remote control that buzzes to get your attention, completely opaque in its operation.
Data collection has always been the game, but AI has fundamentally changed the calculus. Every piece of data you generate is now training material for closed-source models that these corporations own entirely.
Your writing style, your preferences, your relationships, the way you phrase things when you're happy versus angry—all of it gets absorbed into systems you'll never have access to. Systems that will be used to predict your behavior, manipulate your attention, and sell you things with increasing precision.
Before AI, your data was valuable. Now it's existential. Every interaction you have with these platforms makes their models smarter, their predictions sharper, their grip on the economy tighter. You're not just the product anymore—you're the raw material for building the tools that will shape the future, and you have no seat at the table.
The companies that hoarded the most data are now the ones building the most powerful AI. That's not a coincidence. It's the payoff for years of surveillance dressed up as free services.
Here's the good news: a better world already exists. You just have to join it.
I'm not saying you need to go full off-grid. I still hit McDonald's sometimes. I still order from Amazon. But every choice to use a privacy-respecting alternative is a vote for a different kind of world.
The best part: if you actually look at this list, every alternative is healthier for you anyway. Signal instead of Instagram means less doomscrolling and more intentional communication. Bitcoin instead of credit cards means thinking about what you spend. Skipping the McDonald's app means... maybe skipping McDonald's. Shopping at small businesses means higher-quality stuff that lasts. Not gambling is obviously better than gambling.
The privacy-respecting choice and the healthy choice are almost always the same choice. The evilcorps aren't just harvesting your data—they're selling you products and behaviors that make your life worse. Opting out isn't just about privacy. It's about living better.
If you want to take back some control, there are three technologies worth understanding:
Bitcoin is money that no corporation or government controls. Unlike your bank account, no one can freeze it, seize it, or inflate it away. Unlike Venmo, no one is tracking every transaction to build a profile on you.
You can save in Bitcoin for the long term (on-chain or through ETFs if you want traditional finance exposure). For everyday payments, the Lightning Network lets you send money instantly, for free, and privately.
Service to try: Strike — A simple app that lets you buy Bitcoin and send payments over Lightning. It's as easy as Venmo but without the surveillance.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) means only you and the person you're talking to can read your messages. Not the company running the service. Not hackers who breach their servers. Not governments with subpoenas.
This is how communication should work. Your conversations are yours.
Service to try: Signal — The gold standard for private messaging. It's free, it's easy, and it's what WhatsApp wishes it was. Your messages, calls, and video chats are all encrypted. Signal can't read them even if they wanted to.
Nostr is a new protocol for social media that no one owns. Unlike Twitter or Instagram, there's no company that can ban you, algorithm that can shadowban you, or server that can lose all your data.
Your identity on Nostr is a cryptographic key that you control. Your posts are signed by that key and distributed across a network of relays. If one relay goes down or kicks you off, your content still exists on others. It's social media that can't be killed.
Service to try: Primal — A slick Nostr client that makes the protocol accessible. It has a built-in Bitcoin wallet so you can send and receive tips (called "zaps") for content you like. It's what social media could be if it wasn't designed to extract value from you. Follow me there - I'll be posting a lot in 2026!
You don't have to be perfect. I'm certainly not. But start paying attention to the trades you're making. Every app that asks for your location, every service that wants your phone number, every platform that feels "free"—ask yourself what you're really paying.
Small and medium businesses don't need to invade your privacy because they're lean. They make money by providing value, not by harvesting your data. Seek them out.
The world where corporations know everything about you isn't inevitable. It's a choice. And you can choose differently.
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