![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dr-vincent-olsen-reeder-N4DD2VSR7ZG7VADJYASV7EUZTE.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA director of a Wellington-based business is overhauling his use of technology, attempting to \u201cdecouple\u201d from the likes of Meta, Microsoft and Google – but he\u2019s come to realise it\u2019s not as easy as simply making a switch.<\/p>\n
Vincent Olsen-Reeder, works in what he describes as the “AI technology space” but says he is no expert. He’s spent the last few weeks diving into alternative options to the readily available big tech software as he believes their security and privacy measures are severely lacking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just been feeling lately they\u2019re not serving me like they used to be,” he said. “This isn\u2019t a way I want my life documented or recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feeling turned to action when he read a notion by author Ash Sarkar in her book Minority Rule. \u201cOne of the things that she mentions is we aren\u2019t users of these products, we are the contributors to their products, and I never thought about myself like that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought of myself as a Facebook user, but actually I\u2019m a Facebook seller and Facebook are the purchaser of my data \u2013 they\u2019re just purchasing it for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr Vincent Olsen-Reeder, director of M\u0101ori language-focused business ReoPol Limited. (Source: Moihi Hakaraia)<\/p>\n
When he thought about the personal data put in and on social media platforms and how it’s used by platform owners to create more products and services and – in some cases – to sell to other companies, he decided enough was enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am selling, and I am selling for free, but I am selling myself. I am selling every keystroke, I am selling every file, I am selling every photo to them for free, for their own use. It\u2019s a bit creepy when you start thinking about it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The growing concern<\/p>\n
There is a growing concern in some quarters about how dependent people and nations have become on big tech platforms, which are predominantly US owned and operated. <\/p>\n
In 2025, tech critic and podcaster Paris Marx told Q+A there was an over-reliance on US tech services and infrastructure<\/a> to the detriment of a country\u2019s digital sovereignty.<\/p>\n There are very real fears of misuse<\/a> too, as recent disputes<\/a> between big tech companies and the US government continue to highlight the volatility of an unregulated industry, especially during these turbulent times.<\/p>\n Social media platforms were supposed to be built to connect people, but that\u2019s become less and less the case, said Olsen-Reeder.<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be, Facebook for example, the ability to catch up with friends that I don\u2019t get to see every day, the ability to keep track of their lives and share in their successes, and see what they\u2019re up to in a really easy way. But more and more, Facebook are not delivering that anyway. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very ad orientated, it\u2019s very politically orientated. We already know from algorithm stuff they\u2019re starting to hide people\u2019s individual feeds to give you more adverts, more politically polarising stuff to keep you on the platform typing.\u201d<\/p>\n The act of decoupling<\/p>\n The actions Olsen-Reeder has taken are extensive. <\/p>\n Over a period of two weeks he has changed his computer\u2019s operating system, switched browsers, given up his ChatGPT subscription and removed all data from OpenAI. He\u2019s in the process of shifting his email addresses to a more secure platform and he\u2019s removed data from Facebook and closed his account.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also downloaded an alternative word processing software, \u201cinvested\u201d in a different mapping app that is \u201cprivacy focused\u201d and is using a virtual private network (VPN).<\/p>\n He\u2019s quick to point out that he\u2019s no expert in the matter. As a director of a M\u0101ori language-focused business, ReoPol Ltd, with a PhD in te reo M\u0101ori revitalisation and bilingualism, there’s been a fair bit of trial and error in the process. <\/p>\n He said he’s been spending about two hours every day \u201cdoing random things to try and either limit what new stuff is going into those places or to try and take stuff down\u201d.<\/p>\n An issue he\u2019s encountered includes incompatibility between two systems.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve migrated my Google calendar to a new calendar platform that\u2019s private, and of course when I did that the time systems didn\u2019t talk to each so now my entire Google calendar is out by a day and three hours. So all of these things don\u2019t talk to each other anymore, but that\u2019s the price that you pay for trying to do something like this.”<\/p>\n Scrolling through a digital calendar. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n He added: \u201cPeople might be interested to know that you have to pay for your privacy, so none of this stuff is free anymore. This is something that comes with the privilege of access to money. <\/p>\n “It’s really sad that the tools that are free, they\u2019re free for a reason – that\u2019s because you\u2019re paying another way.\u201d<\/p>\n Having gone to such lengths so far, he is pragmatic about his chances of success.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of those things guarantee that data about me isn\u2019t going to go anywhere, but it\u2019s like you\u2019re trying to find the best-case scenarios that you possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n The take away<\/p>\n Asked about disconnecting from the internet entirely, he says that\u2019s not the goal.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to disconnect completely. I work over the internet. I\u2019m in the AI technology space, so for me, it\u2019s not about disconnecting.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s about seeking out really great avenues to keep my data safe, keep my data protected. But also to try and pre-empt what other people might want to do with my data and taking proactive steps to keep the decision-making level of what happens to it as close to me as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The experience so far has led him to the conclusion that everyday people need to be aware of what they have signed up for when using these tech services. <\/p>\n He also believes that those in the know \u2013 \u201cacademics and our people who are really well-known voices in transmitting thought\u201d \u2013 need to inform the masses without dressing it up in jargon.<\/p>\n \u201cNow\u2019s the time to put it in plain English, get it out of the lecture theatre, out of the university tower and put it in front of actual people and say \u2018do this, don\u2019t do that, here\u2019s how you can do it for free, here\u2019s what you might have to give up\u2019. <\/p>\n “Just do it and do it as fast as you possibly can cause I\u2019m reasonably tech literate but it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A director of a Wellington-based business is overhauling his use of technology, attempting to \u201cdecouple\u201d from the likes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,4432,43,145,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-352701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-maori-issues","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Scrolling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/person-looking-at-a-digital-calendar-on-their-mobile-phone-UKBSGHVIVJHSFMFJDF3KWLIKL4.jpg\")
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