Two years ago I reshared this article but added my version of infographic showing how these tracking apps could work in near future. It was intended mostly as a joke. Mostly. You can see it below.

Well. Here you go: China uses COVID tracking app to block people from joining protests by changing their COVID status to red. Also it is suspected that COVID tracking system was used to identify those who intended to join protests in the first place and then to track and detain those who managed to do it anyway.

#BraveNewWorld we live in.

#privacy #freedom #surveillance #pandemic

Back in the old days before I became software developer, I used to be a plumber, one thing I learned back then is to like the idea of connecting simple, semi-independent components into one large network.

As both political activist and free software user, I'm not total stranger to the concept of Fediverse.

the #Fediverse is design to respect your #freedom and #privacy. this is more then just service provider being nice, this is ensured by free software, open standards and the decentralized nature of the network. together it comes to your data being yours. the freedom to publish your content or to keep it private, is the core of online freedom of speech and privacy.

No wonder, therefor, that when I decided to start a blog, my first step was to explore the #Fediverse and it's different platforms (social networks, file hosting, microbloging) to find a platform suitable for writing and sharing with others, independent of any centralist corporate network (such as Facebook or Twitter) and at the same time easily distributed on such networks.

In the case of a blog, privacy is a lesser issue, and the top priority is freedom, not being subject to censorship, thanks to the basic fact that you can be banned from a server but it's almost imposible to ban you from the whole network.
when choosing a platform that respects your freedom, a strong case that comes to mind is the case censorship of #Layla Khaled by Zoom, Facebook and Youtube (thanks to @cbug@venera.social).

the result, maybe temporary result, is using
Plume. a blog engine written in #rust. it does have problems, but that is for another post.
the federated design of the #Fediverse lets me "boost" (like retweet) this in my @bhyoram@mastodon.social account, which in turn is piped to my twitter.

I may dive into #Plume source code one day, to help improving my ecosystem, it's more fun then maintaining "friends" in the big book of no faces.