There are a lot of issues with your post imo.

First, cash is going away, soon. Sweden has done it years ago. Europe is now playing catch up.

Second, a universal digital currency will remove all system heterogeneity. Yes money is already digitalised, but across several proprietary environments. I can and have set up several accounts across several banks so my spending cannot be fully tracked by a single corporate entity. This will be moot once everyone has to use the same harmonized system.

Third, one of the sponsors of the universal European currency has been caught talking about time limited digital currency. As in, spend your money or it just disintegrates after a set amount of time. Which really destroyed a lot of trust in the endeavour

Where did you get the game from? Most platforms like steam don’t actually sell games. You pay to rent the game for life, which is different. Those platforms can change the terms of service for your rental whenever they like. If you prefer to own your games you need to visit actual shops, like GOG.

They’ve been around a bit now. Everyone seems to be pretty satisfied. Desktop app could use some improvements, which is already on their roadmap

Money transfer platforms are even worse than chat apps in terms of how acceptance dictates usefulness. You might convince a couple of friends to use xmpp instead of whatsapp. But its near impossible to get major outlets to integrate new payment methods. Especially if that platform advocates privacy and therefore doesn’t offer a return on invest based on user data. I don’t think we’re gonna see true alternatives without government regulation, and even then…

Strictly speaking, if being trackable is an issue for you, you shouldn’t run around with bluetooth enabled in the first place. And incidentally, no BT means no find my device either.

• I’m a privacy-minded programmer
• I’m (…) aware of how these AIs function
• I am not overly concerned about them

Objectively, these three statements form a paradox. At least one statement has to be false.

I second disroot. Been happy with their service.

Let’s see what europes e2ee ban will bring. Proton is one of the “high risk” services mentioned in the bills debate. Might not be too long before you have to host your own mail server if you want privacy in europe.

Privacy matters most in the individual case, with people who know you.

That statement is subjective at best. My friends and coworkers knowing where I live certainly isn’t my concern. In today’s day and age privacy enthusiasts are definitely more scared of corpos and governments.

isn’t worth it yet.

You’re thinking too small. Just in the context of the e2ee ban planned in europe, think what you could do. The new law is set to scan all your messages before/after sending for specific keywords. Imagine you get automatically flagged and now an AI is scanning all your pictures for locations and contacts and what not. Just the thought that might be technically possible is scary as hell.

You’re misunderstanding the post. It’s not about whether or not someone could guess your location from a picture. It’s about the automation thereof. As soon as that is possible it becomes another viable vector to compromise your privacy.

I never understood how movie-web got so popular when services like FMovies exist.

“Can I please use your phone?” and then just start scrolling through their texts and pictures

That sounds like the error message of a dev that handed in his 2 weeks.