I think I just figured out what kept me up past midnight last night. I want to control my online identity. I want to be able to have control over how I’m presented online. I also want to be able to control what data is taken from me. There’s two very distinct things happening with my data here – push and pull.

When I make a post here on my blog, I want to be able to control certain elements of that – for example, I want to be able to control the content. I have to be the gatekeeper to my secrets. If I expect any kind of overarching policy of personal privacy only to turn around and put an unflattering genitalia-focused picture of my manly bits, well, that action would pretty much override any attempt at privacy I put forward. Likewise, when I post something on Facebook or Instagram, I’d expect that image, post or digital interaction to be as advertised. Though it’s not, and I’m sure there’s many technical tricks happening behind the scenes, that’s what I’d like.

I happened upon a video yesterday that discussed Gmail’s lack of privacy. Concerning? Yeah, just a little.

The first time I encountered an eyebrow raising instance from Google was a few months ago, when my wife logged onto my laptop to check the location of a store she was headed to, only to find my phone (and subsequently, me) highlighted on the map, without my knowledge. After some digging, I was able to find a link that shows my entire, logged location history thanks to Google’s tracking of my always-logged-in phone.

Can you tell that I’m in a privacy-focused tailspin?

I’m taking some actions to restrict the data that is taken from me without asking so that I can focus more on giving the data I want to give, to the people I want to give it to. What a spooky world.