Internet surveillance is driving me back to 1990s computing
The author argues that pervasive internet surveillance and data collection have become so intrusive that they are regressing to 1990s-era computing habits—using offline tools, local storage, and avoiding cloud services—as a way to reclaim privacy and control over personal data.
Background
- The author argues that modern web surveillance (tracking, cookies, browser fingerprinting) is so invasive that using old-school, offline computing from the 1990s is becoming attractive as a privacy refuge.
- This connects to a broader "indie web" and "retro computing" movement where people deliberately downgrade to simpler, local-first tools (e.g., text editors, RSS, command-line apps) to escape data extraction by big tech firms.
- Key context: browser fingerprinting uniquely identifies a machine from its configuration (screen resolution, fonts, plugins) even without cookies. The "Panopticlick" project from EFF demonstrated how uniquely identifiable most browsers are.
- The piece reflects growing backlash against surveillance capitalism — the term coined by Shoshana Zuboff for the business model of monetizing user data — and aligns with efforts like Gemini (a stripped-down web protocol) and local-first software movements.