Don't think about privacy as a vague emotional ideal, or as an all-or-nothing proposition. Instead, think of it pragmatically, and make some trade-offs. What

Don't think about privacy as a vague emotional ideal, or as an all-or-nothing proposition. Instead, think of it pragmatically, and make some trade-offs. What do you need to keep private? Who do you need to keep it private from? The tech infrastructure is making this challenging, so if the answer is "everything from everyone" you are looking at not a very good set of options. Even if you use a secure email provider, chances are you're sending emails to people on gmail and Google gets a copy whether you use their service or not. Don't capitulate, because that puts you in a situation where you'll likely give up everything to anyone. There are many fall-back positions that are less than "tinfoil hat" but that are much better than "My social security number is posted on my Facebook feed". In good security work usually you have a "threat model", or a set of scenarios that you're trying to protect against. The internet is made to copy bits, so not letting anybody see any of your bits is not a terribly realistic goal (if you want to use the Internet) so you need to retreat to a position where you will give up some things, but not others. A way to think about a threat model for your privacy is -- is it OK for a nasty ex to discover your home address? What are you comfortable with a prospective employer knowing about you? What should your elderly aunt be able to discover with a google search? I strongly suggest you don't adopt Edward Snowden's threat model, because the NSA has a level of resources and tenacity that should leave you properly feeling hopeless about this, and they're just not a realistic attacker for you unless you are a very bad person or very high profile. It's a personal decision how much you're willing to trade, and which pieces of information are valuable enough to you that you will go to extra lengths personally (and possibly also inconvenience people you communicate with) in order to protect that information. But there are clearly some kinds of information that are worth those hassles.