It's OK to Take a Break from Thinking About Digital Privacy

25 Aug, 2026

This post was last edited 14 minutes ago.

Due to fortunate personal circumstances, my family and I were able to be away from our home for nearly two months. For me, this meant not having access to my desktop PC, my servers and other projects. I discovered that there are real benefits to not thinking about digital privacy for a period of time, while traveling with a limited set of hardware devices that require a lot less upkeep than all the technology I have at home. I'd like to share some of those insights here.

Travel tech

I swapped my SIM card from my Light Phone 2 into a Google Pixel 8a with GrapheneOS, and I took that, along with an old Lenovo TP440p laptop running Linux Lite, with me.

In my experience, Nextcloud servers (I used snap to install mine) pretty much take care of themselves, so I used that and my paid pCloud account to continue accessing important documents, including my KeePass password database, which I could access via the server from my smartphone and laptop.

We walked a lot and I took a lot of photos, which were synced via Ente on my smartphone. I discovered OpenTracks on the F-Droid app store as an excellent, private Strava replacement. On GrapheneOS, I have various user profiles for banking and other Google-dependent apps, and I accessed my emails mostly from these, which led to me checking my inboxes less often. News was read via RSS feeds using Feeder, and I kept in touch with family and friends on Signal.

A break from devices and systems

I spend much of my time at home sitting at my desk, working on this PC. Looking around now, I see a monitor screen and several refurbished desktop PCs and one I've built myself that dual boots MX Linux and Windows. The latter is for work and music production. I also see my main smartphone, my Light Phone 2, and then various other small devices (old phones, Raspberry Pi) that I've used to test out things like Ubuntu Touch and Whoogle. There is a lot of music recording equipment and several guitars. Added to that, there are several old Lenovo Thinkpads that I use to learn about hardware and try out different Linux distros, and there's a dedicated work laptop with Windows that I set up recently for a clean separation between professional and personal life.

All of that equipment has to be maintained, updated, backed up and sometimes cloned. Readers have suggested automating such processes, but I've not yet gotten that far with my Linux and hardware skills. During my time away, I didn't think about these systems once, but as soon as I got back, I found myself staying up late to re-acquaint myself with them and all their processes.

I'm an advocate for owning two mobile devices: a dumb phone for outside and a smartphone for at home, but during my time away, I used just one device.¹ Carrying a smartphone with you at all times comes with inevitable addiction and overuse, but I must admit that it's convenient to do your online interactions on just one device. I used my laptop three or four times per week.

Lastly, I got a break from writing to-do lists. I keep these lists on paper on my desk, and I use Nextcloud's Deck tool, a digital kanban board, for longer term projects, such as ensuring I don't forget to regularly back up my own data.

A break from blogging and digital privacy

While I do receive the occasional Monero donation, The Privacy Dad blog does not rely on memberships or sustained sponsorships, and as a result, I feel I can stop writing whenever I want to, mostly guilt-free. Overall, I would say it felt quite healthy to take a big break from thinking and writing about digital privacy. Now, on my second day back, I feel compelled to plan and write again, and am enjoying the process immensely.

It was good to take a long break from keeping up with digital privacy news. I did follow some publishers like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a tech round-up blog called 82MHz (which I highly recommend, by the way!), and I caught major developments by dipping into Techlore's Surveillance Report and Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons podcasts occasionally.

I stopped reading and engaging with privacy and tech forums entirely, and checked my Mastodon once or twice a week. I mostly stopped testing out new privacy apps.

I did continue having conversations with friends, family and acquaintances about digital privacy tools whenever an opportunity arose. I used Ente's collaboration album feature quite a bit, and I shared Open Tracks statistics with my fellow walkers.

I did not bring my The Privacy Dad blog notebook with me and did not plan any new articles. The idea for this article came to me on the journey home.

A period of freedom from normal life

I am aware that I'm lucky to have been able take such a long break from normal life.

I had the privilege of having access to a large garden and spent a lot of time learning about plants, weeds, soil, sun, rain and the horrifying menace of cat poo. I got lost in weeding.

I bought a second-hand acoustic guitar and spent time just playing, away from all my studio hardware and software systems. I recorded ideas onto a MiniDisc walkman and later a little Tascam digital 8-track stand-alone unit. I wrote some songs and performed these at a local open mic night, despite severe nerves.

I walked at least 3 miles (5 km) a day and often 5 miles (8 km) or more.

I began to read world news obsessively on my phone. I bought an alarm clock so that I could charge my phone in a different room at night.

Reflections on returning home

One of the first things I did when I returned was to log into my desktop PC. I spent several hours updating the various servers, checking my Monero node and mining setup, and updating software. I quickly got sucked back into reading emails and browsing the Internet. I noticed my stress level went up.

I switched my SIM card back into my Light Phone 2 and began using it again. It took a little while to get used to typing on the small e-ink screen, but it really is a relief to regain some distance from my smartphone. I hope to wean myself off of following world news so obsessively.

Looking around, I am beginning to wonder if I need all of this gear and all these various operating systems. I've been running a Monero node (privately) and mining XMR, but the gains are probably lower than the cost of electricity required. I start up such projects out of interest and to learn, but find that maintaining them afterwards takes time and can add to stress unnecessarily. I'm thinking of shutting that project down. I've put away the older Pixel and PinePhone that I use to install and test alternative mobile phone systems for the moment.

I have accumulated so much audio gear over the years, and these are systems that can, unfortunately, contribute to stress (and guilt when they go unused for periods of time) as well.

I had already begun to reduce my engagement with privacy forums such as privacyguides.net before summer, because I was finding that the balance between constructive dialogue and pettiness and meanness on such platforms leans towards the latter. Engagement in privacy discussions can upset you unnecessarily. So I've decided to disengage from all discussion boards for now.

I do want to emphasise here that the Privacy Guides' website is a great guide for all things related to digital privacy.

I have read about people getting burnt out on digital privacy. It can be a lot to keep up with the news, and, oftentimes, privacy tools are a touch more cumbersome than their mainstream counterparts. Sometimes I wonder how I am able to remember the various pin codes for my multiple user profiles on GrapheneOS. One can start to develop a worst-case-scenario mentality, which, for most regular people, is completely unwarranted. I really appreciate that platforms like Techlore, The New Oil and Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons are strong advocates for threat modelling and that these content creators will regularly remind their readers and listeners not to get in too deep unnecessarily.

Reflecting on the past couple of months, I would add to this that a hiatus from following digital privacy news, engaging in online discussion groups and testing out new privacy tools can be a positive, healthy experience. It's OK not to keep up.

Looking ahead

I'm currently in discussions with Tuta and Forward Email about affiliate links (on their initiative) and think this type of low-level sponsorship might not be a bad thing for the blog. I'll be sure to update the Home page should I join any affiliate programs.

Most of all, I look forward to continuing writing my blog, reviewing privacy tools, and sharing the latest developments with privacy tools (and Big Tech software...) in our family home. For better or worse, the thorny Instagram issue has been raised by my youngest, and I'll be writing about that soon.

I appreciate all of you readers who keep up with my blog!