Become worthless (to tech companies)

Tech companies and their executives have, broadly, moved to align themselves with investors and adopted a posture of, often, disdain or outright hostility towards their users and employees. If tech companies don't value you, why provide value to them? If they back political positions hostile to your interests, why not return that hostility? I'm not arguing for boycotts, I know that people are bound to different platforms for different, compelling reasons. What I am arguing for is that, given the opportunity, you try and reduce the value they can extract from you. That's very often your data, but it can also be a direct financial relationship. Signing up for a service? Well, your birthday is January 1, 1970. Your email address? Give them a throwaway or use a different alias for every service. Your name? Do they need it? Maybe it's James Smith. Or John Smith. Or Mary Smith. Or Patricia Smith. Phone number? 321 is a valid area code. Throw it and seven other digits in. Don't need the…