Conversation

So the big conversation happening now among my friends and associates is about travel, privacy, and safety when coming in close contact with TSA, ICE, or whoever wears a gotdamn uniform of some kind.

We're all reading that article from EFF, looking up how to use burners, #infosec for dummies, etc. It's a lot.

Today, I let myself feel the anxiety at the thought of traveling without my regular devices. But then I was like, Wait. You've been here before. You didn't get a cellphone until....2001ish?

It was a Nokia phone. Not even a flip phone. Just a chonky Nokia, blue, with buttons and a screen to show me phone numbers. Did I have texting? I don't think so.

I went all the way to Amsterdam without a cell phone

There was no GPS. No maps. No scrolling. I traveled and read books or wrote about my random hook ups in my paper journal. I saved it all for my blog. I went to INTERNET CAFES.

That reassured me, a little.

Roll it back to 1998, folks. We did it before.