2026 New Year’s resolutions

New year, new me

First of all, I wish you an excellent year 2026. May it be filled with good cheer and, above all, good health. I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but I think I’m getting old because this year I’m making an exception.

Basically, here are my two resolutions. The first one is simple. I want to populate this website a bit more. Not that writing brings me joy, but I see it as killing two birds with one stone. I won’t write just for the sake of it, so I’ll embark on some personal projects that I’ll tell you about later.

The second one is quite simple: I want to reduce my dependence on GAFAM. I already started in 2025, but 2026 will be the year of confirmation.

But first, why?

It all started when I realized the fragility of our emails. In a digitalized world, our mailboxes contain our lives: finances, health, entertainment, social networks, and so on. We receive everything by email, and generally, we use a free email service (Gmail or Outlook). The fact that these services are free means they are monetized in other ways, which usually means targeted advertising. We tend to accuse our smartphones of “spying” on us by listening to conversations, but we forget that our entire digital lives are based on advertising because we refuse to pay for things that should be paid for.

Worse still, our governments are also starting to attack our privacy on the internet. In France, proof of age is now required to visit adult websites. The arguments are always the same: protecting the most vulnerable (in this case, minors). My opinion is very mixed. This argument doesn’t hold water for me because it’s always for security reasons that we introduce repressive laws into common law. Indeed, we cannot oppose the protection of minors, and once the law comes into force, it will be extended to broader cases. As long as democratic governments lead our states, I think the application of the law will be contained. But in times like ours, where the rise of authoritarianism is inevitable, we are giving future governments the legislative tools to control our digital lives. I mean, what could go wrong, right ?

The second problem is that if the law passes without issue, the technical solution to ensure the majority of visitors to adult films has been left to the discretion of private companies. Imagine what will happen when these companies fall victim to a data breach or a cyberattack. In addition to leaking identity proofs, digital ransoms will become much more effective. But, hey, they will keep your data safe, right ?

I am not saying that we shouldn’t fight against the scourge of minors accessing pornography. On the contrary, I believe that the way our governments are combating this in an insufficiante and counterproductive way. In my humble opinion, just as with drug consumption, protecting minors from pornographic content requires complementing coercive methods with more prevention.

Finally, ChatControl, a Danish initiative in the European Parliament to protect minors from pedocriminality, wanted to end end-to-end encryption and have our messages and images read by artificial intelligence. If content is flagged as suspicious, humans will verify it. Without being a computer genius, one can imagine that the number of false positives (i.e., content classified as problematic but isn’t) will be very high, rendering the proposal ineffective. The only consequence will be the end of secure messaging and a new way to weaken our defenses against tomorrow’s authoritarian regimes. I let you check this website that explain better than me the possible consequences of ChatControl.

We need to fight against the pedocriminality very hard, but we should also keep our fundamental rights protected.

Before receiving targeted ads about my romantic misadventures or potential chronic illnesses, I decided to take the lead. Here’s how I’m de-Googling my digital life:

1. Emails: This is what pushed me to migrate and leave GAFAM. I wanted a service that respects privacy and is European. On my shortlist, I kept Tutanota 🇩🇪 and Proton Mail 🇨🇭. After much reflection, I chose Proton and subscribed to one of their paid plans. I’m gradually migrating important services (my bank, Doctolib, PayPal, etc.) to it.
2. Messaging: I’m trying to migrate to Signal, which seems to be the perfect alternative to WhatsApp. The main problem with messaging is that migration doesn’t depend solely on me but also on the people I talk to. Let’s say that whenever possible, I reply on Signal to those who message me on WhatsApp or Messenger. It’s never pleasant, but strangely, it works because those same people now contact me directly on Signal.
3. Cloud storage: Like emails, drives contain a significant portion of important files (e.g., identity documents, medical files, etc.). I opted for Proton Drive, which is included with my Proton subscription.
4. VPN: I didn’t know I needed a VPN, but the more time passes, the more I think it’s important to have one. If only to use Wi-Fi networks other than your own or unsecured ones.
5. No Chromium-based internet browser: This isn’t too hard because I’ve always preferred Firefox. Monopolies are dangerous, whether economic or in internet browsers. We’ve already seen what can happen with ManifestV3. Once again, Google is a private, profit-driven company. They don’t maintain Chromium out of kindness but because there’s an interest in controlling their clients’ internet browsers. Ad blockers directly oppose their interests, and I foresee a world where ads will no longer be blocked on all Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Vivaldi, Brave, Opera, etc.).

In 2026, I plan to leave Windows on my desktop computer. I’ve always kept a Linux/Windows dual boot, using Windows mainly for gaming. Since gaming has become “easy” on Linux, thanks to Proton (nothing to do with emails) and especially Steam, I no longer see the need to keep Windows. Especially since Microsoft is increasingly including ads within its OS.

What I don’t plan to do right away

Often, when my relatives notice my “radicalism,” there are two reactions:

1. Why are you doing this? I don’t know. I think it’s closely related to the fact that I experienced the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia. During this revolution, the internet played a very important role in sharing information and ideas in a country where traditional freedom of expression was stifled (newspapers, television, youth centers). It was precisely because the internet was free, and social networks had little or no ties to governments, that the revolution took place.
2. But you still have an iPhone? Yes, I don’t completely leave GAFAM. I keep an Apple computer and use an iPhone as a smartphone. I don’t think I’m radical enough to completely leave GAFAM, but there are simple things that can mitigate these companies’ grip on the internet and our lives.

And you? What are your New Year’s resolutions ?