The government just introduced Bill C-22 — a sweeping surveillance proposal that would force collection of vast quantities of Canadians’ private data, on every digital service and device we use. Internet providers, messaging services, and other online services will be obligated to store a year’s worth of metadata about who we’re talking to and where we’re travelling, build surveillance backdoors to access that data into their services, and even hand foreign governments a faster path to that information. This isn’t about catching criminals. It’s a framework for mass surveillance that leaves every Canadian exposed.
Tell your MP: the surveillance state will not take root in Canada. Say NO to Bill C-22!
Keep your data in places that you own, not cloud services. Use LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office/365.
If you need to do some private browsing, use VPNs that exit from countries that don’t share data with 5 Eyes members.
If you need to communicate privately use encryption. SMS/MMS/RCS are all readable by your cell carrier, most email is readable by the provider (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc), DMs are all readable by the site operator (Instagram, Twitter, Discord, etc.). Use a messaging system with end to end encryption like Signal or Proton mail (emails that go to no Proton addresses are readable by the email provider)
If you can not use a an inherently safe communication platform you can use PGP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy or GPG: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Privacy_Guard to send encrypted messages over any platform but it requires that you manually encrypt and decrypt messages yourself.
It’s all about balance, do you really care if your searches for the best cat litter are private? Not really. But if you are having financial troubles, or are trying to work your way out of a vulnerable situation it is worth it to ensure that neither businesses nor governments can take advantage of that.