Privacy is not secrecy

Privacy is control over who learns what about you, and when. It is not about having something to hide. You close the bathroom door, seal envelopes and cover your PIN at the cash machine. None of that is suspicious. It is ordinary.

Losing privacy rarely happens in one dramatic moment. It builds up: one reused username, one tagged photo, one public wallet address. Each is harmless alone, and together they draw a map of you.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation suggests answering five questions before choosing any tool:

1. What do I want to protect? 2. Who do I want to protect it from? 3. How bad are the consequences if I fail? 4. How likely is it that I will need to protect it? 5. How much trouble am I willing to go through to prevent these consequences?

For most people the things worth protecting are messages, contacts, location, money and identity. The likely adversaries are less cinematic than you think: advertisers, data brokers, scammers, people you know, and services that get breached.

No app makes you invisible. Privacy is a set of small habits you can keep up. A plan you follow every day is worth more than a perfect setup you abandon after a week.