The latest debate over whistleblower Snowden and the NSA has finally gotten people  talking about the outrageous (is it that surprising?) fact that our government “checks in” on millions of people….just because they can.

“Fighting terrorism” is an excuse that many people are getting sick and tired of hearing, specially when we are still investing (and corporations making money) in multiple wars in the Middle East with no true solution to getting out, and leaving these nations in a so called “peaceful state”.  And now Syria?…. Ok Obama….

So people are now saying…. “Oh no! Google can read my chats! Oh no… Facebook’s privacy policy sucks! Oh no! But the constitution says….!”

I have a proposal.

Let’s not stop at the saying….and let’s actually get some DOING done.

Here are three easy ways to at least try to avoid getting sucked in this “system”.

***3 EASY THINGS TO DO…..****

1. Change from Gmail to another email provider, like Zoho…. research it. It’s not evil like google. Lovely IT Phenomenon Cara Reynolds (Mushpa) has written multiple posts about Google and has pointed me and a several others to the world of Zoho email. Same functions as Gmail, but has no red tail and horns. You can chat, save conversations, do document transfers…the whole shabam!

Check these out:

From The Day After an Inconvenient Truth: 1.“Just another reason I can’t stand google” 2. “Scroogle: the new and less evil Google” 3. “Some More Scroogle” 4. “The Grid”  and 5. “Google is Everywhere”

2. Get OFF facebook. I’ve been facebook free for 6+ months after having had it on and off since 2006…. its worth it. Facebook is like a reality tv show. Entertains the masses, and keeps them occupied…. if staying in touch is what you want, then email, phones and even letters (which is so nice to get) gets the job done when you actually TRULY want to stay in touch. You know, and often hear, how much time we “waste” on the book of face. There is so much world out there! And so much to do! Let’s ditch the “like” and get real things done : )

3. Phone companies? Well this one is trickier. I’m trying to get off Verizon with a contract….and a chunk of a fee, huh. No surprise there. They have their little Verizon drones trained so well, that they even tell you that the NSA scandal might all just be a rumor! I didn’t stick around too much to have a discussion with my Verizon rep, but so far I have ditched my cellphone (mostly because it’s a shattered iPhone, which magically breaks every year so I would have an excuse to buy a new one). It is much harder to keep up with the world with a landline…. So far I’m stuck on this one. T-mobile with their “no contract” deals still get to you in other ways.  So for now a landline will suffice….and taking pictures with a real camera (which is already better) and uploading to my computer might also take an extra minute…. Apparently I’ll be going back to the dark ages….

But being righteous takes work no? Who said fighting this battle would be easy? It’s kicking my butt for sure….On to the next challenge.

Bring it world!

-Mensa