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The "swiftmandolin" pseudonym began as an exploration of pseudonymity and to learn about privacy, security, and anonymity online. So far, it has led me down the deepest rabbit hole I have ever explored.
Pseudonymity is hard when you have an online presence that uses your real information. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally pushed to a swiftmandolin repo as my real-name git user/email.
But, despite its challenges, pseudonymity is a great expression of freedom. I am allowed to reveal only the information I choose to reveal. In a place like the tildeverse, this is encouraged, accepted, and even the normal.
I am extroverted and an open book, so keeping my identity a secret has been a challenge even in the couple weeks I have been trying all this out. Maybe one day I'll reveal more, but once your pseudonym is linked to you, you can't take that back. So this is a choice I'll have to make carefully. I may have already slipped up too much already.
Living in the United States (there I go, giving out more info), privacy is gone. You're tracked by the government, corporations, and your over-protective mother. Nothing you do is secret or ephemeral.
There are ways to reclaim back some of your privacy though. In my opinion, we should begin in total privacy and choose to open what we want instead of having to "reclaim" our privacy. But, c'est la vie.
So far, the steps I'm taking are:
Ultimately, this is all very hard, but it feels worth it for me. I have basically no threat model, but on principle, privacy is a human right and I should be allowed to have it whether I "need" it or not.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading :).