7 ms·

I realize this, but I still have a hard time not using Google services. I know they are analyzing my data for ads, but it in incredibly convenient for me to be

I realize this, but I still have a hard time not using Google services. I know they are analyzing my data for ads, but it in incredibly convenient for me to be on the exact same platform, from email with gmail and file storage with google drive and browser with chrome and android on my phone, they just seem to get me with one thing at a time in the name of standardization. What steps can be made to prevent this?

icebraining 9y ago
Prevent what? Making convenient things?
- justadudeama 9y ago
  Having all of my data in Google Servers.
  - nicky0 9y ago
    Step one: Put it somewhere else.
394852034 9y ago
You know what's also convenient, letting google decide every aspect of our lives for us and telling us what to think. It's bizarre to anyone born before maybe 1985 , to see what a heinous evil emerging, a kind of authoritarian marxist tech communism that is well on its way to becoming a totalitarian regime once it has convinced everyone to give up control over their lives out of "convenience" and for "safety" and "security". Who knew that the kiddos would read 1984 and think it was a manual? For anyone who wants to look into the background of this real military psychological war that has been waged upon the western world for decades now, but especially in the last 10, do yourself a favor and listen to what the defected KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov warned the west and in particular the USA and Americans about back in... fittingly... 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4 There are all sorts of things the media and higher "education" keep from the peasantry.
baldfat 9y ago
I much prefer the ads that are personalized to me then the random ads I get on mass media. One caveat! Can I please not be bombed by ads for days for items I purchased?!?!?! I bought a camera and I have seen the batteries and camera in my ads for almost a month now.
- gilbetron 9y ago
  I see you bought an oven, would you like to buy another oven?
- slazaro 9y ago
  The excuse for these kind of ads is that it's just machines making correlations, but I've always thought it's mostly easy to solve: they should only show you ads for things you bought when it's the kind of product that other people have bought more than one of. So, that would check out for things like consumables, but not for big appliances, for instance. No need for manual checking of which products pass the test, it would still be automated.
jstanley 9y ago
Replace gmail with an email server you control. Replace file storage with a hard disk you control. Replace chrome with chromium (or, better, firefox). Replace android with an android fork that uses f-droid instead of the Play store. And you're done, no more Google usage. I currently use my Google account only for signing in to YouTube, so that it keeps track of my subscriptions and let me write comments. I use Firefox's "multi-account containers" so that only the "YouTube" container knows my Google account. Google Analytics for non-YouTube sites doesn't get to trivially associate me with my Google account, because I look at all other sites in different containers. If someone created an alternative YouTube interface that allowed you to keep track of subscriptions without telling Google who you are, I'd probably use that rather than logging in to YouTube. Bonus points if it also gives you a disposable Google account with which to write comments.
- coughlanio 9y ago
  Why not use YouTube's RSS feeds and use any bog standard reader? https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC3x6qC4h-NyuvQBSZYaPKrQ https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC3x6qC4... As for the comments that's likely a bigger issue to tackle, especially with how liberal Google is with captchas these days.
  - dwighttk 9y ago
    Nice... I just plugged the channel page into feedly and they got me the feed... I had never thought of doing that. Since I really don't care about commenting on YouTube, I'm now "free" of the bonds of logging in to view youtube.
  - justadudeama 9y ago
    Just curious, what reader do you use?
- lauritzsh 9y ago
  Each YouTube channel also has an RSS feed you can subscribe to. That way you don't tell Google who you are. 1. Go to any YouTube channel you wish to subscribe to (such as youtube.com/user/YouTube). 2. View source. 3. Search for rssUrl or channel_id. There should be a link to an ordinary RSS feed you can use with any reader. Hope this is useful for you.
jpalomaki 9y ago
I would also add security as one benefit. Not sure how others feel, but I think Gmail is one of the most secure ways for me to handle my email (US government agencies are not on my threat list). I think Google takes security very seriously and their scale allows them to do and know things smaller vendors would not know. While rolling your own email server is fairly easy thing to do, you can easily open attack vectors you don't think about. Like social engineering attacks against your hosting or DNS provider which would allow attacker to get control of your server or traffic. These kind of tricks can be pulled of by people who just get annoyed on you on Internet or who want to take your nice Twitter handle.

icebraining 9y ago

Prevent what? Making convenient things?

justadudeama 9y ago
Having all of my data in Google Servers.
- nicky0 9y ago
  Step one: Put it somewhere else.

394852034 9y ago

You know what's also convenient, letting google decide every aspect of our lives for us and telling us what to think. It's bizarre to anyone born before maybe 1985 , to see what a heinous evil emerging, a kind of authoritarian marxist tech communism that is well on its way to becoming a totalitarian regime once it has convinced everyone to give up control over their lives out of "convenience" and for "safety" and "security". Who knew that the kiddos would read 1984 and think it was a manual? For anyone who wants to look into the background of this real military psychological war that has been waged upon the western world for decades now, but especially in the last 10, do yourself a favor and listen to what the defected KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov warned the west and in particular the USA and Americans about back in... fittingly... 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4 There are all sorts of things the media and higher "education" keep from the peasantry.

baldfat 9y ago

I much prefer the ads that are personalized to me then the random ads I get on mass media. One caveat! Can I please not be bombed by ads for days for items I purchased?!?!?! I bought a camera and I have seen the batteries and camera in my ads for almost a month now.

gilbetron 9y ago
I see you bought an oven, would you like to buy another oven?
slazaro 9y ago
The excuse for these kind of ads is that it's just machines making correlations, but I've always thought it's mostly easy to solve: they should only show you ads for things you bought when it's the kind of product that other people have bought more than one of. So, that would check out for things like consumables, but not for big appliances, for instance. No need for manual checking of which products pass the test, it would still be automated.

jstanley 9y ago

Replace gmail with an email server you control. Replace file storage with a hard disk you control. Replace chrome with chromium (or, better, firefox). Replace android with an android fork that uses f-droid instead of the Play store. And you're done, no more Google usage. I currently use my Google account only for signing in to YouTube, so that it keeps track of my subscriptions and let me write comments. I use Firefox's "multi-account containers" so that only the "YouTube" container knows my Google account. Google Analytics for non-YouTube sites doesn't get to trivially associate me with my Google account, because I look at all other sites in different containers. If someone created an alternative YouTube interface that allowed you to keep track of subscriptions without telling Google who you are, I'd probably use that rather than logging in to YouTube. Bonus points if it also gives you a disposable Google account with which to write comments.

coughlanio 9y ago
Why not use YouTube's RSS feeds and use any bog standard reader? https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC3x6qC4h-NyuvQBSZYaPKrQ https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC3x6qC4... As for the comments that's likely a bigger issue to tackle, especially with how liberal Google is with captchas these days.
- dwighttk 9y ago
  Nice... I just plugged the channel page into feedly and they got me the feed... I had never thought of doing that. Since I really don't care about commenting on YouTube, I'm now "free" of the bonds of logging in to view youtube.
- justadudeama 9y ago
  Just curious, what reader do you use?
lauritzsh 9y ago
Each YouTube channel also has an RSS feed you can subscribe to. That way you don't tell Google who you are. 1. Go to any YouTube channel you wish to subscribe to (such as youtube.com/user/YouTube). 2. View source. 3. Search for rssUrl or channel_id. There should be a link to an ordinary RSS feed you can use with any reader. Hope this is useful for you.

jpalomaki 9y ago

I would also add security as one benefit. Not sure how others feel, but I think Gmail is one of the most secure ways for me to handle my email (US government agencies are not on my threat list). I think Google takes security very seriously and their scale allows them to do and know things smaller vendors would not know. While rolling your own email server is fairly easy thing to do, you can easily open attack vectors you don't think about. Like social engineering attacks against your hosting or DNS provider which would allow attacker to get control of your server or traffic. These kind of tricks can be pulled of by people who just get annoyed on you on Internet or who want to take your nice Twitter handle.