A Case for De-Googling
The Google Suite is extremely useful and refreshingly user-friendly.
But in our world of many abuses, Google is far from guiltless. It is quickly becoming apparent that the kind of life I want to live is built around people and institutions that I trust, and to put it bluntly, I don't trust Google.
Here's why:
Google collects all the information I (knowingly or otherwise) make available to their services, to do whatever suits their purposes. This includes my email and chat, documents, location, internet browsing, photos, and more.
But that's fine, since I've consented to it, right?
No. There's more to the story:
- The vast majority of us don't really understand the risks that we're accepting when we use Google products. For example, one day I was watching YouTube, and an ad for Gmail began playing before the video. In the ad, my inbox was being shown as the example of the latest new features. It was brief, and the only personally identifiable information I was able to catch was my email address, but it shocked me. Whether Gmail was flashing my email to the world of YouTube watchers or using some ultra-sophisticated, subliminal personalized advertising, I didn't know I was consenting to that, and I don't want to participate.
- Google is ubiquitous. In communicating with my peers, coworkers, and family, or in collaborating on any small project, I am consistently expected to work on and share files in Google Suite because it's free and useful, with no regard for the integrity of the company. It is difficult to escape and still live in polite society.
- Most schools use Google products and require their students to use them. The kids are trained to believe that this is the way the world operates, and that there is no other way. And people rarely change their brand preferences, so these kids will grow up to be Google users and will be fully entrenched by the time they are no longer protected by federal children's online privacy laws.
- My phone, which was gifted to me, is built around Google. I cannot take pictures without giving Google Photos access, and I cannot turn off excessive reminders to upload my photos to the cloud. Certainly, I can (and will) buy a different phone, but Google is largely in control of Android, no matter what brand I pick. Not to mention that society continues to increasingly exclude those without smart phones.
- Working in the SEO industry, I learned that Google Analytics tracks visitor behavior on almost every website out there because most sites choose to use Google's free tool over paid analytics tools. That combined intelligence must be unimaginably powerful.
On top of that:
- Google dominates the internet search market. The top search results (which few ever look beyond) present the convenience-seeking population with a curated reality that is not necessarily based on reality, and sometimes differs wildly from it. Reputation management and shadow banning are shockingly common practices. I defer to Thomas Jefferson on this issue: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
- Google is known (and has been sued) for undercutting its competition. Sounds like the Gilded Age all over again.
- Google is deeply entrenched in the mass surveillance activities of the intelligence community, in part by early funding.
Fact-check me. It's all rather depressing, isn't it?
But, as it turns out, I have the power to do something about it in my own life. And you do, too. Here ancient Egypt provides us with some illumination: "Righteousness is the owner of power." It's time to come clean.
I want to work toward discarding what is quickly becoming effective criminality and instead build a more local, resilient, nurturing life in spite of it. I need integrity.
I'm not the only one who cares about rebuilding technological integrity. The pushback and alternatives are growing every day.
Join us.