Society has become incredibly digitised and using closed source apps from places like Play Store has become a social norm and expectation. In order to interact with online and local communities, a Facebook or Discord account is often required since these platforms are used to coordinate and interact within these communities: by not using these privacy invasive services, one essentially excludes themselves from the majority of various different hobby and other interests social groups.

In Australia with the pandemic, I am expected to download a closed source app, to take QR codes of most businesses and every medical centre I enter: if I wish to continue receiving medical support, I need to either break the law and risk being issued quite a large fine that I can't really afford, or download this closed source government QR code app.

I like to play a trading card game called magic the gathering: just recently, in order for me to continue pariticpating at big card game events, I need to download their new closed source app from Play Store to register for events; the old registration method was abolished, and now in order for me to continue competiting with my paper cards, I need to install this closed source app onto my phone.

Sometimes, I might meet someone who I flirt with or otherwise befriend and we might want to trade contact details to continue interacting. They almost always assume that I have both Facebook/whatsapp and Snapchat and want to add me on those, and it becomes awkward explaining how I don't use those due to privacy concerns, I've been called paranoid more than once by saying this. What might end up happening is we exchange phone numbers, which might be worse for privacy than some shitty closed sourced app because all text message's metadata is stored by the Australian government.

I'm sure some of you also have these conflicting experiences. Can any of you share your thoughts and experiences on this topic?