Greyman Technology

Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash Here’s a commercial you will never see broadcast on TV: The Opening Scene A beautiful sunny day, and you see an attractive thirty-something person walking along a crowded marketplace with a couple of bags in their hand, smiling as they tap their mobile phone to a little device to pay for some items in a store. Upbeat, happy music playing in the background. The camera shows the phone’s lime green protective case with “Life is Good” quoted on it. Sipping on a drink, waving at some friends across the way as they walk along the promenade. They eventually reach their vehicle in a parking lot, gently toss the phone onto the passenger seat, place their bags in the backseat, slide into the drivers seat, and exhale with satisfaction from a fun afternoon out on the town. ...

Photo by Victor Larracuente on Unsplash I’m departing from the usual online privacy/anonymity/pseudonymity communique with information about the cumulative cost of that little slab of glass in our pocket. This is specifically for Apple iPhone owners, but Android phone owners might gain awareness about their situation as well. The Mobile Carrier Upgrade When the time comes to upgrade your mobile phone, many walk into their mobile carrier’s store and are greeted by an overly-friendly sales associate who is abnormally happy you came in to visit them. As soon as you mutter, “Um, I need a new phone.” you will undoubtedly be bombarded by confusing jargon describing phone features, limited time deals, and budget-friendly math. The same also applies with visiting your mobile carrier’s website. For example, Verizon’s February 2022 special is a brand new Apple iPhone 13 Pro.* I’m confident this will be the same deal communicated by your highly-knowledgeable sales associate in the store. Don’t click on that link unless you want to be hypnotized by world-class marketing to make you think you are getting a bargain. ...

Photo by Alexander Popov on Unsplash By now you should be aware that I don’t like using my personal email for online accounts. I only give my personal email to family, friends, and people I know. So far I’ve used services like 33mail, Abine Blur, and AnonAddy to give online accounts a randomized email address that forwards to my personal email. While these free services are very helpful for ordering food online or signing up for newsletters, I’ve discovered two difficulties with these services: ...

Photo by Sinitta Leunen on Unsplash A lot can happen in a calendar year. If you’re a professional technologist, eager to limit telemetry sent to the big tech companies, you learn a lot during the year. You spend money on devices and software to decrease the information companies sell to data marketers and data brokers about your online habits. Also, you bore your beautiful wife when sharing the interesting but nerdy information you learn, and confuse her on many occasions as she wonders which phone number and email of yours should be shared when someone asks for contact information. ...

Photo by cheng feng on Unsplash I’ve utilized a number of these items in my own personal technology landscape. I believe you will benefit from these purchases, None of these recommendations contain links to Amazon. Faraday Sleeve for Phones from Silent Pocket More and more businesses are tracking us through our mobile phones. When we enter their business, where we linger in specific aisles (heat map analytics), what we purchase (bluetooth connection to point-of-sale purchase timestamps), and more. Slipping your phone into this slim sleeve makes your phone undetected and untraceable to data-hungry retail shops and restaurants. ...

Photo by Jonah Pettrich on Unsplash For the longest time, I was tied to AT&T wireless for my cell phone usage. They provided the best coverage in the area where I live. As time went on I noticed a lot of “additional fees” accumulating in my monthly bill, yet all my monthly call/text/data was within my quota. My wife and I were soon encountering a decent triple-digit monthly bill for our two phones. When our daughter was old enough for a mobile phone, we jumped over to Sprint. They enabled us to keep using our AT&T mobile phone numbers, and we saved about $20 bucks a month with lower fees. Eventually, we moved to a different location within our city, and immediately got “spotty” signal and frequent drops in our mobile phone calls. So I took another look around. ...

Photo by Andrew Haimerl (andrewnef) on Unsplash Some people might find jogging 10 miles in the morning “refreshing.” My body’s not currently equipped for this lengthy exercise regimen, so I would describe this activity as “arduous.” Some people find working as a server at a national chain family restuarant as “exciting” with all the tables filled up with customers and all the food prepared in the kitchen zooming out to hungry patrons. This is not my strong suit in life, thus I would describe waiting tables at a place like this as “chaotic.” ...

Photo by Anthony Shkraba from Pexels My suspicious, non-trusting mind always pictures Internet Service Providers (ISPs) singing this familiar song by The Police, but with different lyrics: “Every weblink you take, whenever you’re awake, Every “Hey Google” you say, every mouseclick you make, I’ll be watching you. Oh, can’t you see? Your web browsing activity belongs to me. My cold heart warms with every web search you place." ...

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels I don’t like the big tech companies acquiring large amounts of data from my web browsing behavior. Mainly because they’re not paying me for it. I get feisty when any online company gathers data about me in attempts to form an online profile about my interests, my purchases, my political leanings, and even my personality. That form of telemetry is prevalent among many online businesses, not just the big tech goliaths. So I have taken deliberate action to protect my web browsing from as many online companies as possible. Here’s a look into my daily web browser setup. ...

Photo by Sixties Photography on Unsplash It has been easy for me to recommend that we protect our personal email, personal phone number, and our home wireless network in our online lives. Gonna shoot straight with you, my fourth item to protect is the most difficult for me to articulate the reasons why it is important. We are all consumers, and we all have gotten used to quick, frequent delivery of things we want. This fourth item takes a great deal of work to integrate in our lives. It adds an additional cost to our monthly budget. And it adds an additional layer of logistics to an already busy life of juggling work, family, friends, hobbies, and overall adulting. ...