💾 Archived View for gmb.is › on-gemini captured on 2020-10-31 at 00:52:37. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-09-24)
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If you're here by way of Gemini, you've probably reached the same conclusion I have: the web is fundamentally incompatible with privacy.
In recent years, there have been a number of Web 3.0, take-back-the-web initiatives. There are projects like Dat, IPFS, the fediverse, and various cryptocurrency protocols. A handful of cryptocurrency projects make privacy a first-class concern, but by-and-large these projects are a response to the centralization of the web, and so focus on self-ownership (e.g. "owning your own data") at the expense of privacy.
On the other hand, Gemini's raison-d'etre is as a privacy and simplicity¹ focused web alternative. It drops things like cookies, referrers, user agents, and client-side scripting. If you follow a gemini:// link, only your ISP and the specific host you're connecting to learn anything about you. Even then, all they learn is your IP address. While many new protocols and internet technologies try to build on top of the web, Gemini avoids it as a goal. By starting from scratch, with a minimal specification, something less leaky and more privacy-resiliant might be created.
Somewhat disappointingly, security, while well considered², is not an above-the-line item. Consequently, the protocol retains, and occasionally exacerbates, some of the web's security flaws³.
With that said, I hope more tech starts by asking what can be accomplished if the web is ignored.