[kwlug-disc] FAANG-free list

[Doug Moen]

I transitioned from gmail to fastmail a few years ago. Like Paul, I no longer want to run my own email server, especially using a residential IP address, as I used to do. Fastmail is an excellent service: the spam blocking is good, the webmail interface is good, the management interface is good, I have no complaints.

So I'm paying fastmail for the $50/yr package. Here is why I pay for an email server:

I presently use uBlock Origin, NoScript and Privacy Badger to block as much malware as I can in my web browser. I define "malware" as any software that acts against the user's interest, and web advertising fits that definition. This means, by Kant's Categorical Imperative, that I want all web advertising (and other malware) to go away. All "free" internet services currently funded by malware and surveillance should either change their funding model to something non-distopian, or stop being offered.

But I still want to use internet services, including email. So ethically, what should I do? The only answer that I can see is that I should pay people for internet services that I care about and that can't otherwise be offered in a non-distopian way. So I have a fastmail account, and I have a patreon account that I use to fund my favourite web artists.

Doug Moen.

On Sun, Apr 19, 2020, at 4:07 AM, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote:
> Back in the Before Times I initiated a conversation about how to go
> Google-free. In thinking more about it I decided Google should not be
> the only target, and furthermore my list was turning into a blog post
> and not a mailing list entry. So I made it a blog post:
> http://pnijjar.freeshell.org/2020/faang-free/
> 
> I am sure you have better suggestions than I do. Also I am almost
> certainly missing categories (AWS? Ordering from Amazon?). I wrote
> this response in the Before Times, and boy does it seem quaint now
> (cash? I wanted to pay for things in cash?) but I point to it here in
> the spirit of history (and I guess unethical self promotion). 
> 
> - Paul
> 
> -- 
> Events: https://feeds.off-topic.kwlug.org 
> Blog: http://pnijjar.freeshell.org
> 
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