Right now, it may be okay for people across the world to use Gmail and Facebook and X. The problem is that in 6 months, all of the things people have been free to talk about online may get them labeled as an extremist or terrorist. This has happened in many countries. Censorship and surveillance are real. These centralized tools are being actively used by law enforcement and governments for good and bad purposes. The data you give them and the accounts you link and the websites you log into with the accounts are linked directly to your identity, and all of your posts, likes, comments, and shares. This allows a government or hacker to tie everything together and create a very detailed model of you: your interests and beliefs, and your family and habits. The problem is that regardless of what's happening to this data right now (and there is evidence to show that what is happening is bad), something much worse could come. During the days of the USSR, for example, there were computer databases with info on every “believer” the police found, in addition to their friends, contacts, family members, places of business, worship, and their homes. This data was used to track them, and restrict their activity by targeting them at specific locations. There is no reason to believe these same systems are not still in use by other countries, and the amount of data being shared online which is free for any government to access vastly exceeds the data which was gathered through social engineering back then. Yes, the data you post online or generate through interaction with a platform like Facebook can be used for purposes like these, and the government never even has to ask your friends where you live or what your phone number is. Again, while normal chit-chat about whatever may not get you in trouble today, 6 months or a year from now things could be very different.

First and foremost, get out of centralized, Big-Tech platforms like Facebook, X, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. There are alternatives which are anonymous, decentralized, and even censorship resistant. For instance: * Nostr is a popular twitter-like platform. It requires no email or ID. * Signal Messenger, while centralized and not completely anonymous, is one of the easiest encrypted messengers to setup. This is trusted by many people across the world and a good place to start. * Linux-based operating systems such as Debian or Ubuntu can be used in place of Microsoft: they are free, and so are the programs that work like Microsoft Office and Photoshop. Anyone can download the code and check each line to ensure it only does what it says, a liberty not found with Microsoft or Apple. * Session Messenger allows decentralized, encrypted, and anonymous communications. It needs no ID, no payment, no phone number or email, and runs on multiple platforms including Android, Apple IOS, Mac, Linux, and Windows. This is one of the best services I've seen. * IPFS allows file distribution across numerous servers. It is decentralized and cannot be censored. It is also anonymous. * Paragraph.xyz allows anonymous, censorship resistant blogging. There are other platforms like it. * TOR is a free, open-source program that acts similar to a VPN. The difference is, it needs no login or payment, and can bypass censorship, even in China or Russia. * A good VPN, like Mulvad can get past a lot of censorship as well depending on the situation.