Many people I know are getting off social media and deleting their Facebook account. It can be a difficult decision to delete your account because it’s like burning your personal diary or deleting a recorded timeline of your life experiences. However, Facebook has made it surprisingly easy to get a copy of everything, including your photos, in a format that can be used later. Let’s get started on how to backup and download your Facebook account using a desktop computer.

1. Login to Facebook and click the down arrow located at the top right of the page which exposes a popup menu.
2. Click Settings & privacy and then Settings.
3. Click on “Your Facebook Information” from the the side panel and then “Download Your Information.”
4. Select the file format as either HTML or JSON. As a developer, I prefer the JSON format which makes it easy to write scripts, parse the data, and upload to another platform if that’s your goal. You’ll still have all the photos as external files so if that’s all you care about then it doesn’t matter. If you select HTML it’ll be easier to view your posts from your local computer in a browser.
5. Set Media Quality to High so you get the best quality of your photos and set the Date range to “All time” so you get everything.
6. You can then optionally select what data you really want in your backup file. It defaults to everything. The more you select the bigger the file will be so if space is a concern you’ll want to uncheck the items you don’t care about.
7. Click “Request a download” which will start generating your backup zip file.

It’ll take a little bit of time to generate the backup file. In my case, it took about 15 minutes and resulted in a 2.4 GB file. The file will expire in a few days so make sure to check back often to see if it’s ready for download. I’ve had to request the backup multiple times because I forgot to download it. Click on the “Available files” tab and you’ll see your requests and if they are pending, ready to download, or expired. Once it’s ready for download, click the download button, and enter your password to start the download.

The Facebook backup is a single zip file containing many different folders and files. You’ll find your posts in a folder called “posts” and your photos and videos in the “media” subfolder. Move your backup file to a safe location as it may contain sensitive information. I hope you found this article useful for backing up your Facebook profile and please let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

It’s a really good time to focus on privacy and security and I want to provide you a comprehensive list of software and services that I personally use online. Let’s jump into my Top 5 list of recommendations:

1. Browser – Download Brave and use it as your default web browser for your mobile phone and desktop computer. Brave stops online surveillance, blocks ads, loads content faster, and will use less battery on your mobile device.
2. Search – Configure your Brave browser to use DuckDuckGo or the new Brave Search (currently in beta) for searching the Internet. You can also navigate directly to their website for searching. These search engines do not collect personal information. And if they don’t collect it, they can’t sell it.
3. E-mail – Set up a free e-mail account on ProtonMail and start using it as your default e-mail address for social media accounts, banking, political newsletters, and anything else where privacy is important to you. Encourage others to also set up ProtonMail accounts so that messages sent to each other will be secure. E-mails sent outside of ProtonMail (such as to Gmail accounts) will not be secure and can be collected and retrieved by your Government.
4. Messaging – Download Signal to your smartphone and desktop computers for chat messaging. Encourage others to use Signal so that your messages are encrypted and secure. Android phones can also use Signal as their default SMS application which makes it convenient to have all your messages in one place. It’s important to know that any message sent via SMS (regular text messages) are not secure and can be collected and retrieved by your Government.
5. Passwords – It’s so important to use complex and unique passwords for all your online accounts. Never use the same password, never write your passwords in an unencrypted document on your computer, and never write your passwords on a piece of paper and leave it out for others to see (lock it in a safe if you do this). There are many software solutions that can help you generate and manage passwords. I personally use LastPass. You can use LastPass for free with many browsers including Brave or you can upgrade to a paid service to get a few extra features. At a cost of less than a cup of coffee per month, I think it’s worth it. You need to start using a password management system or you run the risk of using weak passwords that can be easily guessed. If someone gets control of your e-mail account they can start resetting passwords at other websites including your financial institutions. It can get ugly fast. I cannot stress this enough… use strong, secure passwords! LastPass has a password generator that creates passwords using a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols (ex: F96zglS&w#q). I personally have mine set up to generate 10-12 random characters. You don’t have to write the passwords down or remember all of them because the password management software will do it for you (some will even fill it in when you visit various websites). All you need to do is remember just one password, the one to your password management software. Do it!

I think you’ll be in good shape if you follow the above advice. If you want to hear my thoughts on smartphones, social networks, and news sources then keep on reading.

Best Smartphone

Should you buy an iPhone or Android phone? Apple and Google have two completely different business models. Apple likes you to pay good money for their hardware and software and in return they protect your privacy. Google likes to give you lots of free software and services and in return profit off your personal data (searches, buying habits, etc). Apple’s iPhone wins in terms of privacy over Google’s Android. However, the iPhone falls short in terms of customization of features and the installation of software. One obvious example of this is Android allowing Signal to be used as my default SMS application. The iPhone does not permit changing your SMS application from iMessage.

The iPhone also doesn’t allow installation of software from sources other than Apple’s App Store. It’s my phone and I want the option of installing software from other places just like I do on my desktop computer. Android phones can be configured to support this. You can’t really have the best of both worlds right now in terms of privacy and customization. I’m hoping in the future we get new Android vendors that are more widely supported and focused on privacy.

My recommendation, if you are not a technical person I would just stick with an iPhone for now. It’s important to remember that your privacy is really only as good as the apps you have installed and are actively using.

Best Social Network

Most people will define the best social network as the place where their friends and family are active. However, in my opinion there really isn’t a best social network because at this point none can be trusted with your personal information. If you haven’t watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix yet and you don’t understand that last sentence, I strongly encourage you to take the time to watch it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit are too big, too powerful, and have too much of a political agenda. They also clearly do not support free speech. I recently watched the big tech monopolies of Apple, Google, and Amazon conspire to destroy Parler, a new pro-free speech social media platform gaining in popularity. The coordinated attack by these extremely powerful companies was my inspiration for this article.

There are other smaller social networks that claim to support free speech such as Gab, MeWe, Minds, and Clouthub. Parler has also recently relaunched using their own servers. I really don’t know if any of them will take off. Gab seems to be the furthest ahead because they have been fighting big tech censorship for the longest amount of time. Both Gab and Parler have been banned from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. However, you can still access them using your mobile browser.

If we’re going to continue using social media/networking to connect with the world, I think we should go back to the days of internet forums like Twit recently launched. Smaller communities that aren’t being run by giant tech corporations are the best option. It’s also easy to start your own community by using a decentralized service such as Mastodon. Mastodon is a better option over internet forums and traditional social networks because it’s a decentralized platform. This makes it almost impossible for big tech to shutdown.

Best News Source

It’s impossible to pick the best news source because all of the giant media companies are untrustworthy. Rather than report objective news and information, media companies are now more focused on sensationalizing stories for clicks and advertising dollars. Everyone seems to have their preference, but I’m starting to think news is very much like social media in that they become echo chambers. Spending too much of your time on any one platform or news source is a bad idea. The truth seems to be harder to find these days and many of the fact checkers appear to be slanted, especially when it comes to politics. It would be great to have honest news sources and currently smaller outfits like OANN and The Epoch Times seem to do a good job. This could always change though especially if they get bought by larger media companies.

I prefer listening to independent podcasts such as No Agenda, Scott Adams, Joe Rogan, and several others. No Agenda with John C. Dvorak and Adam Curry is hands-down my favorite podcast. They deconstruct the mainstream media’s coverage of politics in a humorous way. Scott Adams always provides unique insights on various topics. Joe Rogan is one of the best long-form interviewers out there. In particular his interviews with Elon Musk are some of my personal favorites. None of these podcasters are controlled by big media companies or sponsors. I created the Playapod app so that I could subscribe to podcasts without censorship or the selling of my private data. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do you have additional recommendations to protect your privacy and security? Drop me a comment below and let’s chat. Thanks!

I’m excited that my company, TMSOFT, recently launched White Noise 7 and it was covered by Tech Crunch. I’ve spent the last 8 years developing the White Noise sleeping app and spent the last 2 years building a platform called the White Noise Market that will now allow users to share their own White Noise recordings and mixes.

The first question Lora Kolodny asked while interviewing me about the launch was “Doesn’t SoundCloud do this? How is it different?” I told her White Noise creates audio loops from your recordings so they can be listened to all night without interruption. If there is just a small gap in audio or something doesn’t seem smooth when the sound repeats then people will wake up. I’ve spent years building an algorithm to create a perfect audio loop and now our users can help us in creating the world’s largest collection of relaxing sounds.

As I was driving home from the office the day of the interview, I continued to think about her question. Isn’t it more than just creating the perfect audio loop? I failed to mention White Noise allows you to attach a photo and location to each recording and when you share it to the community it appears on a world map. Want to find a specific sound from your region? Now you can drill into this shared world map to discover regional sounds. I thought to myself, that’s pretty cool but is that really unique?

I thought more about what makes the platform unique. Users that post their recordings allow other users in the community to not only download them, but also to use them in their own sound creations. These new soundscapes are created by mixing multiple sounds together, changing various audio properties, and then uploading the new creation back to the White Noise Market. These shared audio loops have now become building blocks that can be assembled in different ways then published again as a completely new and unique sound. I think this process is what sets White Noise apart.

It’s not just about uploading your sound and saying, “Here it is world. Enjoy!” White Noise users will be able to build something new from other people’s sounds and from there it could really grow into something more unique. So it’s not just an audio sharing platform. It’s a platform where the content is constantly evolving and growing into something new and exciting. I think that makes the White Noise Market pretty unique.

Over the years, I’ve received many questions about how to take an idea and turn it into a product.  This ultimately was the inspiration for my book, “Tap Move Shake,” which had more than just coding tutorials.  It was an entire playbook from start to finish that included creating media, publishing, and marketing.  Some found it to be very useful (mostly engineers that didn’t know how to do marketing), but others just didn’t want to put in the effort required even though they had the best idea ever.

Best Idea Ever

Here is a small sampling of the many requests I’ve personally received:

“Hi! I had an idea for an app and if you like it and build it I think it will be big. When it goes viral a 10% split for me?”

How about 50% because even though I don’t know you I bet it’s amaaaaazing!

“I have several game ideas. I might want to learn code but would rather stay on the creativity side of it.”

I would like to stay on the creativity side of it, too.

“You probably get a lot of App ideas and offers, but thought I would contact you regardless and see if you would take a meeting with me about a new idea I have been cooking. I have a brief write-up of the idea that could be reviewed by you with an NDA.”

Nobody will sign a NDA to hear an idea.  Nobody.

Potato Salad

Zack Brown raised $55,492 to make Potato Salad

People have become fueled by the movie Social Network, seasons of Shark Tank, and Kickstarter potato salad.  They think all you need is a great idea and the money will come.  It doesn’t really work like that.  Ideas are the fun and exciting part of a long and stressful journey to building something.  I know this because I’ve spent lots of years building lots of somethings.

I have given countless presentations over the years handing out a ton of advice.  But more and more I find that people seem to think all you need is a good idea and that alone will result in someone paying you for it, cutting you in with a percentage, or working on it for sweat equity.  That’s not realistic at all.  Even Dilbert knows this.  New entrepreneurs should read the article, Your Ideas Have No Value by Carol Roth which explains it perfectly.  It’s really all about the execution.

No Shortcuts

Starting a business is not easy and I personally know of far more failures than successes.  In order to mitigate that risk of failure you need to obtain a wide-range of knowledge.  I think the most successful entrepreneurs have a common trait that’s programmed into them–they never stop learning.  If they succeed at something, they will learn from it.  If they fail at something, they will learn from that too.  It’s a process and their journey usually begins by having a job working for someone else, collaborating with others, and gaining as much knowledge as possible.  There are no shortcuts.

Working hard to learn a myriad of different skills has been the key to my success.  There isn’t an employee in my company that I can’t fill-in for.  That’s because at the beginning I was the one that did that job.  I taught myself how to build mobile apps, but I also learned how to do quality assurance, customer support, marketing, accounting, sound engineering, graphic design, and more.  I needed to have general knowledge of every part of the business.  Granted, it was out of necessity because I couldn’t afford hiring for those positions when I first started.  Now that my business is thriving, I can hire people to work on my ideas.  I can finally be the idea guy and have others build it.  But that’s only because I worked hard to get here.

Getting Started

If I haven’t talked you out of pursuing your idea yet and you are excited to learn more then I highly recommend these great podcasts, videos, and websites as resources to get you going.

• Everything is a Remix – Please watch this right now, especially if you think your idea is the first of its kind. It’s a very thought provoking video series on the originality of ideas.
• Startup Podcast – All about starting a business.  And it’s told as a story rather than a basic “how-to” so it’s not boring.
• Tim Ferris’ Podcast – Tim interviews world-class performers such as Chris Sacca (billionaire investor of Uber, Twitter, etc) which is about as good as it gets for advice.  Almost all of Tim’s interviews have great takeaways in them–I find myself learning a little something new each time I listen.
• TWiT TV – Leo Laporte has been covering tech forever and runs a great podcast network with lots of varied tech shows.  He hosts This Week in Tech and it’s one of my personal favorites.
• Naval – Read this thread by Naval on Twitter on how to get rich without getting lucky.  Then you’ll probably want to follow him.
• Meetups – I’ve met great people at tech meetups in my local area. There is a lot of good advice and resources out there for free.  I’ve even made some good friends too.
• Tech 411 – Oscar Santana and I host a tech podcast called Tech 411.  It’s okay.

Ready, Set, Go

It really boils down to this—if you are passionate about an idea, willing to work extremely hard on it, and learn as much as possible in the process then you might have a chance.  A chance to be more than just a person with an idea. You can be the person that built that thing that everyone needs.  And I’m all for that!

Just don’t ask me to do it for you.   🙂

What’s it like to sleep on the International Space Station?  This week at my company we published a collection of space sounds that you can add to the White Noise app.  Read more about it at the official blog for TMSOFT and listen to what the ISS sounds like below: