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Because of these, Alexa O'Brien, Microstopped, and a few other incidents I've seen on HN, I've become very concerned about Google's power over my life, arbitra

Because of these, Alexa O'Brien, Microstopped, and a few other incidents I've seen on HN, I've become very concerned about Google's power over my life, arbitrary moral decisions, and lack of customer service. Within a week I will take my phone number out of Google Voice. I plan to change emails in the coming months as well. I've started to do regular backups of my Google Drive. I've also started to do any searches on controversial topics in Firefox on DuckDuckGo. If any of my side projects become valuable enough, I'll probably move them off GCS as well. I'm a little weird in the way I think, so maybe I'm the only one so concerned. I'm probably too paranoid. But sometimes I lose a little sleep thinking about the potential consequences of Google randomly closing my account.

adreamingsoul 9y ago
I worry too and have also started to migrate my data offline.
yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
What are you using to replace Voice? I've not found any good alternatives.
- thedevil 9y ago
  I'm just switching to regular wireless service and giving up the things I like about Google Voice.
dsrajapaksha 9y ago
How do you plan to change emails? I'm thinking of moving out of Gmail too but didn't decide on a service yet. Office 365 with Exchange sounds good but it's like moving from one monopoly to another I guess.
- ne01 9y ago
  How about fastmail.com?
  - corobo 9y ago
    Be prepared for a long transition period while their spam filter warms up. Couldn’t handle it myself, I’m back with gmail.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - kaosjester 9y ago
      Could you explain what this means?
      - x0x0 9y ago
        I assume gp is referencing the necessity of training the spam filter. I didn't have big problems with it, except for a monthly student loan payment confirmation email that fastmail refused to classify as not spam no matter how many times I so marked it. In general, I found gmail's spam filter to be the best. If, however, you don't need to regularly interact with lots of new email addresses, fastmail will work fine for you.
        corobo 9y ago
        This is exactly it. I found myself having to manually classify spam/notspam for the first time in over a decade. This might be fine for some or even most people but if like me you’d prefer to spend less time on email not more it may not be the best choice as an email provider. Nothing against the service, just be prepared to manually train a spam filter
    - ambrosite 9y ago
      Fastmail user here. I had problems with spam too when I first signed up, but then I discovered I could change the spam protection level from "Standard" to "Aggressive" in the mail settings screen (the default is "Standard"). That immediately solved almost all of my spam problems.
      - 9y ago
- x0x0 9y ago
  Fastmail is the best of the non-gmail email providers imo. Plus they're a simple business: you give them money and they give you email. You should check them out.
  - velox_io 9y ago
    I only skimmed their website, but I didn't see user aliasing[edit: they do aliasing & wildcards], or shared accounts. In fact any real mailbox features? I am becoming concerned about the power Google has over my life (have been for a while). They know what you're reading (Chrome, even in incognito mode via DNS), what your thinking (web searches), who you're in contact with (Gmail, Android + their Apps), not to mention maps and what they do with your photos/ drive data. Even patient data with the NHS sharing data with Deepmind[0]. The company needs to broken up as the Did with Microsoft years ago. [0]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40497020 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40497020
jxramos 9y ago
Post a blog on how you pull it off, I'm looking to go this route too. I knew when google bought YouTube it would eventually go down the tube. I got rid of my television years ago but all the standard ads rolling into YouTube makes it closer to old broadcast tv ad experience in one off fashion.
ycombinete 9y ago
I've done exactly this. Moved to Fastmail for my email; Dropbox, and Resilio Sync, for my cloud storage; DDG for searches in general, with google as a backup (it really is the best unfortunately). The general rule for me is to use paid, or free and open source[0], services. As long as I'm either a community member or a customer, and not a product, I feel safer.
dorian-graph 9y ago
Likewise, I try to completely avoid Google as much as possible now too. When I have some free time I'm going to finish moving off of GMail to most likely Fastmail. Ditto for using DDG too.

adreamingsoul 9y ago

I worry too and have also started to migrate my data offline.

yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago

What are you using to replace Voice? I've not found any good alternatives.

thedevil 9y ago
I'm just switching to regular wireless service and giving up the things I like about Google Voice.

dsrajapaksha 9y ago

How do you plan to change emails? I'm thinking of moving out of Gmail too but didn't decide on a service yet. Office 365 with Exchange sounds good but it's like moving from one monopoly to another I guess.

ne01 9y ago
How about fastmail.com?
- corobo 9y ago
  Be prepared for a long transition period while their spam filter warms up. Couldn’t handle it myself, I’m back with gmail.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - kaosjester 9y ago
    Could you explain what this means?
    - x0x0 9y ago
      I assume gp is referencing the necessity of training the spam filter. I didn't have big problems with it, except for a monthly student loan payment confirmation email that fastmail refused to classify as not spam no matter how many times I so marked it. In general, I found gmail's spam filter to be the best. If, however, you don't need to regularly interact with lots of new email addresses, fastmail will work fine for you.
      - corobo 9y ago
        This is exactly it. I found myself having to manually classify spam/notspam for the first time in over a decade. This might be fine for some or even most people but if like me you’d prefer to spend less time on email not more it may not be the best choice as an email provider. Nothing against the service, just be prepared to manually train a spam filter
  - ambrosite 9y ago
    Fastmail user here. I had problems with spam too when I first signed up, but then I discovered I could change the spam protection level from "Standard" to "Aggressive" in the mail settings screen (the default is "Standard"). That immediately solved almost all of my spam problems.
    - 9y ago
x0x0 9y ago
Fastmail is the best of the non-gmail email providers imo. Plus they're a simple business: you give them money and they give you email. You should check them out.
- velox_io 9y ago
  I only skimmed their website, but I didn't see user aliasing[edit: they do aliasing & wildcards], or shared accounts. In fact any real mailbox features? I am becoming concerned about the power Google has over my life (have been for a while). They know what you're reading (Chrome, even in incognito mode via DNS), what your thinking (web searches), who you're in contact with (Gmail, Android + their Apps), not to mention maps and what they do with your photos/ drive data. Even patient data with the NHS sharing data with Deepmind[0]. The company needs to broken up as the Did with Microsoft years ago. [0]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40497020 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40497020

jxramos 9y ago

Post a blog on how you pull it off, I'm looking to go this route too. I knew when google bought YouTube it would eventually go down the tube. I got rid of my television years ago but all the standard ads rolling into YouTube makes it closer to old broadcast tv ad experience in one off fashion.

ycombinete 9y ago

I've done exactly this. Moved to Fastmail for my email; Dropbox, and Resilio Sync, for my cloud storage; DDG for searches in general, with google as a backup (it really is the best unfortunately). The general rule for me is to use paid, or free and open source[0], services. As long as I'm either a community member or a customer, and not a product, I feel safer.

dorian-graph 9y ago

Likewise, I try to completely avoid Google as much as possible now too. When I have some free time I'm going to finish moving off of GMail to most likely Fastmail. Ditto for using DDG too.