What Happens If Trump Gets In?

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Obviously it would be bad, bad for Americans, bad for the vast majority of those that voted for him, bad for the world.

He is a terrible 'leader' and it'll be bloody chaos.

He is, as we know, a self confessed dictator-in-waiting, and patience is not a virtue he possesses.

He'll become the leader, the dictator, of a country with an awful lot of global tech that hold a lot of our data. Those companies will not be spared. Your data will become Trumps to do as he wants with, that's what being a dictator means.

I use Google as my tech hub for most things. This blog, my website, my email, my calendar, my everything that keeps the work (and separately the personal) me going.

All of Google's data, my emails, my files, calendars, contacts, everything will very likely and over time be coopted into his dictatorship to be used for his needs. 

Yes, Microsoft as well.
And Apple.

Also, with more difficulty for Trump, Xero, TradeMe, Tradify, and likely many others that sit upon US cloud providers (but not Timely, and definitely not Catalyst, nice).

Of course Google will resist, but that only works when there are rules to play with, laws to utilise, and societal norms to be upheld. Trump has explicitly, openly, and honestly told everyone what he will do, day 1, if he is elected. He will demand personal loyalty so he can personally benefit from the USA resources.

Sidenote: this is, I believe, why Musk is right up Trumps ass at the moment. Both to protect his own resources/companies, and to guide the attack against those Musk sees as both competitors and /or have slighted him.

Ok, so what do I do in the next 10 days - this is going to be my plan:
  1. Setup non-US hosted buckets for my data (email, calendar, blog, etc etc)
  2. Prioritise what needs to move
  3. List the services that may have data but I don't need to move (ephemera)
  4. Work how how to copy the data (automatically would be best)
  5. Work out what to do with the hardware, Android phone, laptop, etc
  6. Start the process 
  7. [later, once all working well and if still needed] Close Google accounts thus deleting the data.
(I can tell you one thing though, whatever services I do end up moving to they won't be self hosted, life is way too short for that - convince me otherwise)

Even if Trump loses the vote, and I believe he will lose, that won't be the end of it. Again, he and his supporters have been open(ish) about how the election doesn't really matter and how they will be seizing power though other means, backed by violence.

If you're a non-US business using USA incorporated companies (no matter where your data is physically stored) then I urge you to put your mind to  how you will continue operating in a changed world. Think of this as a disaster that you can see coming, get your Resilience Plan out and kick it off.

Do not be surprised.

And hey, it might not happen, but at least you'll be prepared for when something else does, "the Event".

Trump photo next to the Google logo

Comments

  1. Anonymous27 October 2024 at 11:04

    Very interesting, thank you. 🙏🏼 not that it makes data with Apple entirely safe, but I do like that they’ve been architecting things so they don’t have the keys to access as much of the encrypted data. Might have to return to horses and pigeons for getting messages around!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous29 October 2024 at 12:39

      Doesn't make the data you've given to Apple safe at all I'm afraid.

      Horses and pigeons it is 😱

      Delete

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