CIRCLE WITH A DOT

Here are some things in your life that might be single-point-of-failure vulnerable, but which probably don't enter into your mental calculus

your back up email on file with your alma mater (one university I attended uses this as 2FA if you need a transcript)

your access to (gag) MyChart for medical stuff

work-related writing, forms, and doc creation that you need to do your job and which for whatever reason exist only on gdocs

kid baby pics and videos that you are trusting icloud to hold for you in the absence of physical storage

access to your banking if 2FA is running through US tech email

etc.

NO NEED to reply here to say how dumb people are and how smart you are. If you have tips, they're welcome.

I think people misread this advice, like it's a fashion statement or a life orientation. If you are engaged in ANY activism that the US government sees as against its wishes, it's very simply building out a safety net so your entire life doesn't come to a screeching halt if you're capriciously targeted.

@revndm you don't have to trust other options in terms of making a huge leap right now- but what are you doing to throw yourself some lines or pad out a nest elsewhere as an emergency fallback

If you were suddenly entirely locked out of google or apple, what would you lose? What other address book do you have for your contacts? Is your two-factor for bills or banking routed in ways that make you desperately dependent?

I am here only on my phone across these weeks so it's cramping my style in terms of longer posts and I mostly think 'nah' in terms of explicating at length.

I will say, though, that I don't think it's too soon for you to be building yourself an online presence away from gmail and apple, and that while this advice has mainly been en vogue for non-US folks, I think it actually applies even more urgently for us.