brasscodemonkey

That sounds like a self-discipline problem. It would be highly beneficial for you in and outside of the office to work on that.

I don’t have any close friends. I love working from home. I love the freedom of being able to work from any location. And most of all I love being able to focus on work instead of having to wear noise cancelling headphones so I can drown out other people chatting about YouTubers and Netflix series’ while I’m trying to get my work done while I’m at work in order to avoid working from home during my personal time.

I agree. Memorizing algorithms to answer leetcode questions have their benefits but it’s extremely rare that a front end web developer would need those skills. If they did, that would mean the backend engineers aren’t using the right approach to organize and serve data to the client.

So if I don’t backup with Google Photos or Google Drive, would they be safe for now?

Depends on the company. If it’s a Chinese company like TikTok, data is stored in China and therefore property of the state. Things are about to get worse and they crack down on private companies in China.

And it’s not just Americans who worry about this. When word got out that Line was storing user data in China servers, it blew up in the news in Japan and Taiwan and went into immediate investigation. Line ended up moving Japanese user data to South Korea. Chinese aggression and Xi’s obsession with power is not just something Americans spout off in Reddit and YouTube comments. They’re a legit threat to Taiwan, Japan, Australia and India.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Line-cuts-off-ac...

Hasn’t Google been parsing Google Photos images, email content, and pretty much everything else since forever? Do you just stay off of smartphones and cloud platforms entirely?

I don’t think it’s fair for people to say you’re lying. People in the rural US really can be quite racist. Same in rural anywhere I suppose. I lived in Taiwan for a couple of years and although the racial ignorance does not go as far as racism and violence (maybe except toward southeast Asians) it’s strong. People will stare, comment under their breath, make ridiculous and insulting assumptions about you, call you names, etc. During the pandemic if you didn’t look Taiwanese some people wouldn’t even let you inside their shops or restaurants, they’d request to see your passport and travel history but let Taiwanese-looking people waltz right in.

I do think it’s fair to say people in rural areas of any country have less exposure to people outside of their own little tribe. Hopefully this continues to change as internet becomes more omnipresent.