What is the “Privacy Society”?

For a healthy society to function its citizens require privacy

We are a loosely associated group of individuals devoted to promoting the benefits of digital and personal privacy. If you think people have become too addicted to social media and their phones, if you are not comfortable with the data collection/surveillance Big Tech and Big Brother has without a warrant, or looking for the right balance of connectivity and being in the moment in the real world, you are already a part of the Privacy Society, WELCOME!  

We believe for society to function in its rich, complex, and diverse manner; individuals need privacy to live their lives the way they see fit, have secure/private conversations with their inner circle, and participate in activities they enjoy without being published unknowingly online. 

At the Privacy Society Inc, we are promoting privacy in two ways. The first is this Substack by creating a dialogue to help increase awareness of the constant erosion of privacy. The second factor is we are creating a line of phones, applications, and services to help non techies communicate securely and privately with their trusted circle of friends, family, and business relationships. 

I am personally addicted to technology and the constant stream of online information but now I find it evasive, manipulative, and wasting valuable time. Can I ever truly have a private conversation online anymore? Can I be in a social gathering and not look at my phone 15 times! A facet of this endeavor is my journey to find a better balance.

Privacy also keeps those out of your life that have no reason to know what you are doing, no reason to comment on your life, and no reason to constantly send you information that gets you “wound up”. 

Why Privacy-First Phones & Communications? 

The first step in giving up an addiction is usually going cold turkey. Throwing the phone in the ocean is not practical as staying connected to your inner circle for personal and professional reasons is still important. My first step was getting a phone and with a “de-Googled/de-Apple’d” operating system on it and installing a collection of apps that don’t “feed the algorithm”.

There are many reasons you may want a secure/privacy phone. Below are my current top ten but please let me know in the comments your reasons.

Ten Reasons for a Privacy Phone

1. Second phone. Baby steps. You may want to have a primary phone with all the digital junk and chatter required to be part of modern society but also want a phone that you take with you when you want quiet but still be connected to those that matter most. Used for short digital diets. 

2. Trusted Private Number. A secure private phone that you only give out the details to your inner circle. When there are notifications on your phone you know it is from someone important not just a noisy social media app or a call from someone you really don’t know. 

3. Digital Wellness. Our phones will have limited apps. Email, Weather, Secure Chat, Private Maps, and a few other key apps to enhance your life but not become an addiction or time waster. 

4. Families. Maybe you want to give your kids phones and not worry about all the junk that comes with them. We are launching a phone for youngsters that will have limited apps and tailored to be connected to Mom, Dad, and important contacts. No social media!

5. Vacation. When you want to get away you really want to get away from it all. Get away from the digital noise at the same time. Get an inexpensive phone with just calling and text. 

6. Secure Messaging. Use apps that are end to end encrypted with no personal identifiable information required to communicate. No phone number and no email needed to use the secure chat and the messages are not stored on a central server, only on the encrypted phone. Lawyers can give a client a privacy phone pre-connected so they can discuss issues without interception. 

7. Board of Directors/CEO/Attorney/Accountant/Investor Circle. In most corporations all the executives have phones provided by IT. How do you know IT is not reading or intercepting your communications? Maybe there is a big M&A deal cooking and you need a way to ensure it’s not going to leak. 

8. Private/Public Life Separation. High net worth individuals, public figures, and outspoken personalities all have a public persona. Have a phone dedicated to your private life as it reduces the target for hacking, IT snooping, and enables taking a moment to leave your public life behind. 

9. Stop Feeding the Algorithm. This will definitely be a stand-alone article. Everything you do on social media, every link you click on the web, every voice assistant command you give, every picture you take is fed into Big Tech AI algorithms teaching them what people think and to teach machines how to think. There are many great uses cases for AI but using it to make people become more addicted digitally is not good.

10. Peace. As the Eagles song says, “Learn to be Still”, when we go back to interacting in person, having real conversations with the people that matter the most, attending in-person events, and living in the moment instead of constantly looking at the screen will reduce stress and anxiety. We did not evolve to be in a constant conversation with 1 million people/bots but survived by creating authentic bonds with those around you. 

What are we cooking up? 

Phones, Apps, and Services for Private Communications designed for Non-Techies. You should not have to be a computer guru to have privacy, security and trust in your digital life.

Our online store now open!

Here are highlights of what we are building.

1. Unique Phones. We selected a group of phones for various lifestyles; executive phones, small inexpensive phones for youngsters, ruggedized phone for adventures and even a phone with a keyboard. We don’t make phones but selecting phones we can install a privacy focused operating system.

2. Privacy Operating System. We selected a De-Googled Android as the basis of our Privacy OS that has no surveillance, no central telemetry, and no user accounts needed. No Microsoft accounts, no Google accounts, no Apple ID etc.

3. Privacy Society App Store. We selected the best of breed of privacy oriented applications. We include apps like Proton Mail, Calendar, VPN and Password Manager. We added simple apps like weather and notes that do not spy on you. Check out our App Store.

4. Shadow Privacy Apps. Many privacy apps still require Google and Apple services to run. Our phone does not have these services so we needed to modify/create apps in order to still function in a truly private environment. First off we are building a Shadow Voice and SMS apps that shields your real phone number so you can give out a shadow number that can be easily changed if compromised or becomes overly distributed so you never have change your actual phone number or give out your real number. Read more about our Shadow Suite.

5. Making it easier to be private. Making a few open source communications apps a little easier to use for non techies. Harder said then done.

6. Offering Help. We are offering services to help install and configure all these services to make it easy for our Privacy Society members to create trusted/secure/private circles of communication. Even onsite training and setup.

More information and pre-order status will be announced on this Substack soon. Please subscribe to follow our progress.

In Closing

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” – UN, Article 12, December 10th, 1948.

Much has changed since this United Nations resolution in 1948. How much of this is still actually true?

For a healthy society to function its citizens needs privacy, period.
I believe this deep in my soul.

Having the Big Eye in the sky knowing what everyone is doing and pushing down its narrative is not helping democracies or civilization. We succeed when we authentically communicate and form circles of trust and support. The modern digital age has caused anxiety not peace. It’s time to disconnect from the noise and find solace in communicating and being connected to only those that matter most.