The education France has provided me with would probably have cost me much more anywhere else in the world. I have always wished to stay here to work, if only to pay some of it back to my country. With a degree in the STEM fields, I expected it would be easy.

I did not expect political issues to get in the way. I did not think the misuses of our surveillance system would one day be even remotely on par with those of the US or the UK, to the point that I do not know today where my privacy is breached the more.

Of course we say "let's encrypt", we foster the use of Tor and the likes, but that misses the point. There should not even be a case for such a law which will help nothing but totalitarianism and is even a disincentive to investments in France. Still our politicians and administrations have paid little heed to La Quadrature du Net's and other actors' comments. Instead the government drafted this law in haste, seemingly to curtail the democratic process which should have taken place in its entirety, especially for a change that big regarding our freedom.

The way I see things, I have two options: leave for another country that still deems privacy as a fundamental liberty, or stay in France and get involved in politics in the hope that I can help reverse the current situation.

I do not think I have the skills to get involved in politics, nor do I have the desire to. I guess I will soon be part of their statistics on "brain drain", although right now I feel more ousted from France than attracted to anywhere else.