On top of that, having services with an understanding of a four year old child push things into my information stream is really rather annoying. If I want to know I'll ask. Otherwise someone mature around me, who knows me well, will tell me, and will not be tempted to be sharing all they know about me with someone else at the drop of an invisible court order.
I'm also uncomfortable with the way Google collects so much user data. I wouldn't go so far as saying it's creepy though - they don't do anything sinister or nefarious with your data, but they do have an insatiable appetite to track and record as much of your online activity as they can.
They can track you across mobile, desktop and tablet devices. They have a desktop OS (ChromeOS) that potentially tracks everything you do online - whether you're running apps or browsing the web. You have to sign in to do anything - even to print to your desktop printer; all print jobs are routed through their cloud print service. Over the course of a few months or a year, Google will potentially know more about your online behaviour than you do.
Google's fingerprints reach into every corner of the web - you can't avoid them even if you're not signed in to a Google account. Google Analytics is everywhere as are the many Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). In fairness to Google, they do have an opt-out tool for Google Analytics. And many sites benefit from using Google's CDNs, although Google obviously benefits too).
What worries me is how easily Google avoids scrutiny on issues of user privacy and data collection, particuarly from the tech community who give them an easy ride on such matters.
I am at the point where I am pretty much convinced that it is beneficial for me to move off Google's services. Evenmore, because the speed of pushing unwanted products seems to increase rapidly. E.g. even if I have a paid Google Apps account, I cannot use Hangouts to its fullest without also using Google+, e.g., I cannot send pictures from my Android phone without Plus (which apparently creates a conversation-specific Plus album).
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find good paid replacements without sacrificing too much functionality (which is a testament to how good their products are). For instance:
- Fastmail: it's fast, has great webmail, but no ActiveSync for mobile devices. The calendar is still beta and there is no CardDAV syncing yet. Offers XMPP, but since nobody does federation anymore these days, it's not that useful anymore. No replacement for Google Docs.
- Exchange Online/Office 365: provides ActiveSync and EWS works well with Mail.app. Lync with Skype federation looks like it could be a replacement for Hangouts. Offers an online version of Office. However, my Android phone does not seem to work well with their servers, duplicating calendars, etc. Also, they miss features like sub-addressing, identities where you can relay mails via another SMTP server. And although they don't do ads, I am not sure how much they can be trusted.
I am most inclined towards using Fastmail.
Any other ideas/experiences of getting out of the Google infrastructure?
bjelkeman-again|12 years ago
chestnut-tree|12 years ago
They can track you across mobile, desktop and tablet devices. They have a desktop OS (ChromeOS) that potentially tracks everything you do online - whether you're running apps or browsing the web. You have to sign in to do anything - even to print to your desktop printer; all print jobs are routed through their cloud print service. Over the course of a few months or a year, Google will potentially know more about your online behaviour than you do.
Google's fingerprints reach into every corner of the web - you can't avoid them even if you're not signed in to a Google account. Google Analytics is everywhere as are the many Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). In fairness to Google, they do have an opt-out tool for Google Analytics. And many sites benefit from using Google's CDNs, although Google obviously benefits too).
What worries me is how easily Google avoids scrutiny on issues of user privacy and data collection, particuarly from the tech community who give them an easy ride on such matters.
microtonal|12 years ago
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find good paid replacements without sacrificing too much functionality (which is a testament to how good their products are). For instance:
- Fastmail: it's fast, has great webmail, but no ActiveSync for mobile devices. The calendar is still beta and there is no CardDAV syncing yet. Offers XMPP, but since nobody does federation anymore these days, it's not that useful anymore. No replacement for Google Docs.
- Exchange Online/Office 365: provides ActiveSync and EWS works well with Mail.app. Lync with Skype federation looks like it could be a replacement for Hangouts. Offers an online version of Office. However, my Android phone does not seem to work well with their servers, duplicating calendars, etc. Also, they miss features like sub-addressing, identities where you can relay mails via another SMTP server. And although they don't do ads, I am not sure how much they can be trusted.
I am most inclined towards using Fastmail.
Any other ideas/experiences of getting out of the Google infrastructure?
zobzu|12 years ago