I'm not a particularly persuasive or skilled writer. But I do know a few things about programming, and I've finally got a blog up.
This is my company, Origin Horizon.
Why does this company exist?
Don't be fooled a company's value statements or virtue signaling: At the most basic level, every company and corporation exists to make a profit, and I am no different. I want to make decent money while doing work that I enjoy. I intend to do that by providing good products and an honest service. But being completely truthful, I want to get paid for my work.
All of that being being said, there is something else that drives me. I want to learn how to take back my privacy and self-determination online, and find ways to help others do the same.
For the better part of a decade, we as consumers have been happy to trade away our privacy and data in exchange for useful services. Many of our tech companies have made it an easy relationship to be in. They provide top-notch products, and work hard not to cross the Creepy Line. They've learned that customer-as-product business models can be incredibly lucrative, especially in the world of advertising. But as new technologies such as AI emerge, and the demand for data to train the algorithms becomes more urgent, the lines that shouldn't be crossed seem less and less important to these companies.
I believe the result has been nothing short of a complete disaster. We now have near absolute power over certain industries monopolized by a handful of companies who control the news you read, the information you find, and the apps you use. These companies work increasingly in lockstep with each other toward ideological-driven goals instead of competing. Diversity of thought is becoming extinct. Data collection, especially of personal sensitive information, is more pervasive than ever. As their customer/product, you have no guarantee that your data won't be compromised in a breach, sold to a 3rd party, or turned over to a government. De-platforming, censorship, and outright political maneuvering are becoming the new norm.
This isn't the future we want. But it may well be the future we deserve if we refuse to hold those with power responsible.
The solution to these problems lies in decentralization, anonymity, and security. Nothing will change, and the problem will only get worse, until we take these things seriously.
Encryption should be a first class citizen in our apps, and only the customer should have to means to decrypt the data.
People shouldn't be forced into revealing personal sensitive information about themselves.
The social engineering of marketers and moral busybodies needs to end.
I hope to build products and tools that stay true to these ideas. I want to create things that don't spy on you. The only way to protect a secret is to not share it, and I want to keep your information by never having access to it.