As a mental preparation for a blog post about privacy, I thought about when I started to care about my privacy online. And I actually don't remember.

When I was a child, I definitely did not care. I grew up with the internet where it still made sound when you're connecting to it and if someone in your household made phone calls (looking at you, mum) the internet stopped working iirc (-5 privacy). I mostly used it to play online games like StarCraft 2 and message friends on ICQ (I still remember my ICQ number). I also messaged random strangers on ICQ and I did not care about not revealing any PII. At least I wasn't conscious about it. I think I never revealed any PII but I think there was never a situation where this was tested. Common sense, inability, not enough interest, not being sexually attractive enough (lol), being introverted ... (?) protected me from visiting dangerous places on the internet. The most dangerous place dangerous in a sense where people might lurk for unsuspecting, innocent children - I ever visited on the internet was probably internet chat rooms / chat roulette (knuddles?) but with no cam, only writing. And I think even that I only did with friends, it wasn't my own idea.

At some point, I created an account at Facebook and SchülerVZ (not sure if that exists outside of Germany) because my friends also had accounts. I think when I created an account at Facebook, it still required to get invited? Or maybe I only wish so to feel like an OG, lol.

However, I didn't enjoy Facebook and SchülerVZ. I even found a bot account on FB which copied all my pictures and pretended to be me - without using my name however iirc, lol. I reported it but I think it just popped up again or was never deleted. That was kind of a weird experience. At some point, I just stopped using any social network because it all felt so fake - at least in hindsight. As mentioned, I am not a social person so looking at all these social persons with their social activities and social friends and oooh, what a great life they must have because they posted a funny picture - it just made me feel miserable.

Fortunately, I was friends with like-minded people (no coincidence probably, haha) so none of my "real" friends ever used social networks much. We had our instant messengers with group chats and that was all we needed.

One friend of mine even had a hilarious first experience with FB where he was surprised that others joined a conversation. He thought it's a private conversation but it was actually public. That was very funny and we had a good laugh about that for a long time in school. In hindsight, thinking something is private when it actually isn't is actually a very dangerous situation.

I think that I got interested in online privacy and why it's important because of university. When I had my first classes about it security, we also talked about data protection including laws. I think that's where it started.

Making a cut here since this post already got a lot longer (as usual ...) then I intended. I want to hear about your experiences!