Gabriel Custodiet > Quotes

“The death of privacy means the death of human freedom. Imagine a world of complete neural connection: shared thoughts and feelings. People begin to organize and gain access to impressive knowledge. Equality and Unity rule the day. Division and strife seem as though they will end. But soon, as with all non-private systems, things go wrong. Coercive minds dominate others. Minority thinking is literally wiped out. Variety and quirkiness smooth to dull conformity. Harassment, thought impossible, begins to flourish; innovation and imagination, needing isolation to develop, slow to a crawl. Unique thoughts dissipate as minds sync-up to the buzz of sameness.”
― Gabriel Custodiet, The Watchman Guide to Privacy: Reclaim Your Digital, Financial, and Lifestyle Freedom

“I’m reminded in moments like this of a pig-headed argument from former NSA consultant Ed Giorgio: “privacy and security are a zero sum-game.”1 I’ll let Dwight D. Eisenhower respond to that: “If you want total security, go to prison.” Security is only valuable when it enhances your personal freedom at the expense of no one else. Privacy is the best way to achieve security. More importantly, freedom, not security, is the highest value of a society.”
― Gabriel Custodiet, The Watchman Guide to Privacy: Reclaim Your Digital, Financial, and Lifestyle Freedom

“The privacy advice of this chapter can be distilled in the following dictum: practice minimalism. Minimalism says that you are the master of your world, and not the things and the services in it. A minimalist does not purchase or download more products or programs than are necessary. He uses basic tools that get the job done instead of “high tech” and “always online” ones. He learns to do things for himself. A minimalist lives life instead of recording it through a lens. A minimalist gives up very little and has very little that can be exposed. A privacy-seeking person is an aspiring minimalist.”
― Gabriel Custodiet, The Watchman Guide to Privacy: Reclaim Your Digital, Financial, and Lifestyle Freedom