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@ Alejandro
2023-09-09 17:25:11
> "We may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes"
>
> — X new privacy policy, effective September 29, 2023
*Welcome to the latest issue of the Bitcoin For Families newsletter. This issue is not about Bitcoin. Today I will be talking about freedom from surveillance and X. Feel free to skip this article if this is not your cup of tea*.
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Bitcoin is freedom money and if you appreciate it as such then you also appreciate freedom of speech and freedom from tyranny. Unfortunately, X (formerly known as Twitter) is heading towards the path of tyranny and there is no looking the other way anymore.
X recently announced their new [privacy policy](https://twitter.com/en/privacy#x-privacy-1) that now also covers the collection of your biometrics data, job history and education history among other things.
TechCrunch covered the news with this [article](https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/31/x-plans-to-collect-users-biometric-data-along-with-education-and-job-history).
## Elon, are you out of your mind?
Biometrics are the **ultimate** personal identifiable information: your fingerprints and your face define you and the idea of giving them to a corporation so that you can share your thoughts or follow some famous people is preposterous.
What do you think X will do with that data? Let me give you a hint:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7bXJ_obaiYQ?si=ciced5cFKTULvnUz" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is not the future that I want and I will not use a service that is actively taking us there.
## Premium users today. All users tomorrow
Supposedly this is only applicable to Premium users, who are already providing X with their credit card number and phone number. But this is no different from when a politician says that a program is *temporary*.
X will first offer the option, then require it as part of the Premium onboarding and finally, with the excuse of fighting the bots, it will require all users to become Premium or lose their accounts.
Today, anyone who is not a Premium user is already being shadow banned and getting minimal engagement with X's prioritization of Premium users, their posts and their responses over anyone else.
## Chinese style surveillance for all
We already know how this will end because we just need to look at WeChat, the everything app in China. Elon Musk has even stated that he wants to build the WeChat of outside of China.
Chinese people have a social credit score so that if you, for example, lose points on your score for jaywalking, then you're not allowed to buy a train ticket for inter-province travel. Guess how easy it is to enforce this kind of policies when **everything** is done from a single app.
Elon is enabling this same surveillance. It will be officially managed by a corporation instead of the government but as we saw with the Twitter Files, at the end the government is the one pulling the strings, telling Twitter which tweets to delete, which accounts to block and who to suspend indefinitely from the service.
>A federal appeals court [ruled](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/09/08/biden-administration-coerced-facebook-court-rules/70800723007/) yesterday that the Biden administration coerced social media giants into free speech violations.
Recall all those people who got their accounts closed because they suggested that the COVID virus may come from the Wuhan lab. They were called racist and removed from Twitter at the direct request of the White House. The same government that now says that, yes, the COVID virus came from the Wuhan lab.
Losing your Twitter account is hard and it should had never happened.
What will happen when you get suspended from the *Everything App* for saying the wrong thing? How will you buy food, gas, make phone calls, etc.?
> Remember that since X has your biometrics, you will need a new set of eyes to create a new account.
## I'm quitting X
It is for all these reasons that I will not continue using Twitter after September 29th.
Instead I will focus my social media presence on clients that use the decentralized social media protocol called Nostr. With these clients, you have full control of what you see.
There is no owner who limits the exposure of your notes when you don’t become a premium subscriber. And when you build your social network there, it is truly **YOUR** network.
>If you don’t like app A, you can switch to app B and your followers will still get your messages. Nothing changes for them regardless of the app they use.
I encourage you to try Nostr. Watch this video and check [whynostr.com](https://www.whynostr.com).
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aA-jiiepOrE?si=tgClAfKnOox0Nd7w" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Today I will post my last tweet encouraging people to explore Nostr and follow me there.
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# Notable notes
nostr:note1klu7r76lcspacfgmzxq5vxuxlzh4ktk6280zlnxfqghuyfhqsj0qc42qq6
nostr:note1r859dznj5qatq60d7ln4gv4dtr3q0va7rq6q2sa92p0vvklfd9vs93ph2m
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# Recommendations
## Zach
Zach is the person behind the WhyNostr website.
You can follow him [here](nostr:npub10fu0hlkx3s4n4dsgfu0cpqephga4afr4qtzpz9vsyqf7vj88v2yqdp8vp4).
## Why Nostr
Why Nostr easily explains why social media apps built on top of the Nostr protocol give you all the power and are the best option to maintain your freedom and fight those who try to take it away from you.
Check it out here: [www.whynostr.com](https://www.whynostr.com)
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See you again next week!
— Alejandro
This newsletter is for educational purposes. It does not represent financial advice. Do your own research before buying Bitcoin.