#wheretobegin

Not always, not entirely; but I do attempt to read them or at least I skim them for any particularly egregious or aggressive data collection practices or other terms that I may not agree with participating in to use the service.

Sometimes they lead me to even more interesting places, such as this page about Acumen, which was referenced as having a similar creed worth reviewing.

So when I was looking for a platform on which to host this content, there were really only two choices:

1) Host my own webpage / blog

2) Find a platform that would meet most of my needs without compromising my sense of privacy.

Since I don’t want to invest the time and expense of hosting my own site again (I mentioned in a previous post that this isn’t my first go-around with this project), I decided to find a platform that would suffice.

I reviewed Vero as a possibility, which actually looks pretty cool, and to their credit, they were very up-front and clear about their Privacy Policy, which outlines a practice that immediately disqualified them for my purposes.

I don’t want to share my phone book with any company. (At most, I would consider one person’s information at a time to selectively share information.)

Uber requires this to split fares. Vero requires it to see who, of your contacts, also use Vero. Many applications request to download your whole phone book for connecting you to others.

This practice goes against the grain of all my sensibilities for maintaining privacy for myself and protecting the privacy of my contacts. I’m the kind of person who asks permission of my contacts before sharing their information with a third party to ensure it’s okay with them.

Ever have someone cold call you, usually asking for something, and then having them disclose that, “Oh I got your number from so-and-so”? In my mind, I’m usually thinking, so-and-so is no longer trusted.

Maybe a little harsh, but this is one of the values I hold dear: Privacy.

So, given that Tumblr does not require a bunch of personal information to get an account started, and because the platform reasonably satisfied my needs, it jumped right to the top of the list.

Is it possible I missed something terrible in the T&C or PP? I suppose, but I don’t think so. (If you find something of grave concern to you, please reply and let me know.)