Infrastructure privacy tools: Fastmail, Flock, and the decentralization mood
Two threads pulling in the same direction: a detailed Fastmail migration post from Gmail drew strong positive sentiment, with multiple commenters calling it the service they've paid for longest with the most satisfaction. Meanwhile, Wisconsin cities are canceling Flock Safety contracts over privacy concerns, and the thread notes that the network effect of a shared camera grid breaks down when cities opt out, which is an interesting infrastructure dynamic.
The Fastmail thread is particularly notable because it's not a 'Gmail is broken' story, it's a 'Gmail treats me like I'm stupid' story. The frustration is with paternalistic design and forced features, which connects directly to the AI features backlash thread. People are paying for tools that respect them as adults.
Flock's situation is a different flavor of the same thing: a surveillance network whose value proposition depends on wide adoption is losing cities over privacy and transparency concerns. The lesson is that network-effect businesses built on top of privacy-ambiguous data are more fragile than they look when public opinion shifts.
So what?
There's a real and growing market for software that does exactly what it says, collects minimal data, and doesn't add features users didn't ask for. Fastmail is winning on positioning as much as on product. If you're competing against a Google or Meta product, the 'we don't do the creepy stuff' angle is increasingly a legitimate differentiator, not just a niche pitch.