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After being a keen Google user in the late 2000s to mid 2010s, I’ve been in on a process of extracting them from my life now their true creepy colours are on di

After being a keen Google user in the late 2000s to mid 2010s, I’ve been in on a process of extracting them from my life now their true creepy colours are on display. YouTube => Deleted Google plus => Deleted Gmail => Deleted, switched to Soverin [0], works great, less than $4 per month for 25gb email hosting Drive => Deleted, moved to iCloud Docs => Deleted, use iWork for docs and Bear [1] for text Search => Duck Duck Go, getting better all the time Chrome => Safari, excellent battery life, good tracking protection Google Photos => Deleted, moved to Apple photos Next project is to move my website off of Google Analytics. I’d love to fully switch to Apple Maps as it’s getting better but don’t know if I fully trust it yet. Google Maps is the gold standard. [0] https://www.soverin.net https://www.soverin.net [1] https://bear.app https://bear.app

decasia 8y ago
Soverin sounds like a good project. What do you make of the fact that the warrant canary hasn't been updated since May, though? https://soverin.net/warrant-canary https://soverin.net/warrant-canary
- freehunter 8y ago
  Does Gmail even have a warrant canary? I don't think so, so comparing apples to apples it seems like a wash.
- rrcaptain 8y ago
  That's a poorly phrased warrant canary. Aren't warrant canaries intended to be for FISA-type warrants?
- ashelmire 8y ago
  Aren't warrant canaries valid until removed? Dates on them don't matter.
  - Buge 8y ago
    It says "Up to date as of: 2018-05-22". That seems to imply that it may have been invalidated at some later point. If it is valid until removed, then it shouldn't have a date at all.
- mattkevan 8y ago
  Got to assume that anything online is being gobbled up by a security service somewhere. My email may not be 100% safe (what is?), but at least it’s not being used to sharpen an ad-targeting algorithm.
remir 8y ago
I used Apple Maps when I had my iPhone and it worked great for me. Loved the UI. When I saw error on the maps, I gave feedback so Apple could improve the thing. I do the same on Google Maps. I'm using a Pixel 2 XL now and while Google's services are indeed quite good, Apple's own suite of apps worked quite well, too. I like that the image recognition for photos was done on device instead of some remote servers.
Terretta 8y ago
About Soverin — how is the spam filtering? Ruthless spam filtering without false positives is Gmail’s “killer app”, with insane scale and network effects protecting that lead.
- mattkevan 8y ago
  I’ve noticed a bit more spam, but not hugely so. Apple Mail’s spam filtering has caught everything pretty well. A few years ago, when I was using gmail my address got used as the sender on a spam campaign and I was overwhelmed for weeks. Had nothing like that so far. Maybe I’ve been lucky.
carlesfe 8y ago
How is Soverin delivery? It's the first time I've heard of them so they don't seem to have been around for many time. Newer mail companies sometimes have problems delivering to Microsoft or Yahoo servers. Can you comment on that? I'd be very interested to switch.
- mattkevan 8y ago
  I’ve not had a problem so far, but then I don’t know many people who still use Yahoo or hotmail email addresses. My wife’s company use Exchange and I haven’t had any trouble there.
lazyjones 8y ago
The sad thing is, you just confirmed they‘re doing the right thing. They probably still make money with you as youtube, analytics, adwords „user“ and they never got a dime from you with the products you stopped using (except ads on Search perhaps). Their net income from you probably increased when you stopped usig their free products.
BuckRogers 8y ago
Great list, thanks for posting. I've been anti-Google for a long time and never was a fan. The only product of theirs that I find is indispensable is Youtube. They bought it, but it's by far the most useful and enjoyable product they keep going. Google Maps is close and it is the gold standard for maps, but I could get by without it for sure and just stick to Apple Maps. I'm a Firefox/DDG/Dropbox+OneDrive/Outlook.com guy. No social media. I just suffer with whatever battery loss I get on my laptops with Firefox. But I do think it draws less than Chrome. I tell people to just use native browsers that are already installed on their laptops for power/performance reasons, with a note that the only other browser that's customizable and powerful enough to be worth sacrificing battery efficiency for is Firefox. I love the features of Firefox and if it weren't so vastly customizable and superior to Edge/Safari I'd use and recommend native browsers only. I do tend to prefer Apple and Microsoft over Google but that's a long held bias of mine. I didn't care for Google when they were popular with everyone in the early days of Chrome's release. Hated Google before it was cool, hipster Google hater.
VirenM 8y ago
I understand most of the switches, but unfortunately any gmail address you correspond with will eventually tag and index you. Its difficult to fully separate your email history from Google when the whole market has been colonized. What I'm trying to say is your data will be accessible by Google servers regardless of which email service you use -- so why the paid switch?

decasia 8y ago

Soverin sounds like a good project. What do you make of the fact that the warrant canary hasn't been updated since May, though? https://soverin.net/warrant-canary https://soverin.net/warrant-canary

freehunter 8y ago
Does Gmail even have a warrant canary? I don't think so, so comparing apples to apples it seems like a wash.
rrcaptain 8y ago
That's a poorly phrased warrant canary. Aren't warrant canaries intended to be for FISA-type warrants?
ashelmire 8y ago
Aren't warrant canaries valid until removed? Dates on them don't matter.
- Buge 8y ago
  It says "Up to date as of: 2018-05-22". That seems to imply that it may have been invalidated at some later point. If it is valid until removed, then it shouldn't have a date at all.
mattkevan 8y ago
Got to assume that anything online is being gobbled up by a security service somewhere. My email may not be 100% safe (what is?), but at least it’s not being used to sharpen an ad-targeting algorithm.

remir 8y ago

I used Apple Maps when I had my iPhone and it worked great for me. Loved the UI. When I saw error on the maps, I gave feedback so Apple could improve the thing. I do the same on Google Maps. I'm using a Pixel 2 XL now and while Google's services are indeed quite good, Apple's own suite of apps worked quite well, too. I like that the image recognition for photos was done on device instead of some remote servers.

Terretta 8y ago

About Soverin — how is the spam filtering? Ruthless spam filtering without false positives is Gmail’s “killer app”, with insane scale and network effects protecting that lead.

mattkevan 8y ago
I’ve noticed a bit more spam, but not hugely so. Apple Mail’s spam filtering has caught everything pretty well. A few years ago, when I was using gmail my address got used as the sender on a spam campaign and I was overwhelmed for weeks. Had nothing like that so far. Maybe I’ve been lucky.

carlesfe 8y ago

How is Soverin delivery? It's the first time I've heard of them so they don't seem to have been around for many time. Newer mail companies sometimes have problems delivering to Microsoft or Yahoo servers. Can you comment on that? I'd be very interested to switch.

mattkevan 8y ago
I’ve not had a problem so far, but then I don’t know many people who still use Yahoo or hotmail email addresses. My wife’s company use Exchange and I haven’t had any trouble there.

lazyjones 8y ago

The sad thing is, you just confirmed they‘re doing the right thing. They probably still make money with you as youtube, analytics, adwords „user“ and they never got a dime from you with the products you stopped using (except ads on Search perhaps). Their net income from you probably increased when you stopped usig their free products.

BuckRogers 8y ago

Great list, thanks for posting. I've been anti-Google for a long time and never was a fan. The only product of theirs that I find is indispensable is Youtube. They bought it, but it's by far the most useful and enjoyable product they keep going. Google Maps is close and it is the gold standard for maps, but I could get by without it for sure and just stick to Apple Maps. I'm a Firefox/DDG/Dropbox+OneDrive/Outlook.com guy. No social media. I just suffer with whatever battery loss I get on my laptops with Firefox. But I do think it draws less than Chrome. I tell people to just use native browsers that are already installed on their laptops for power/performance reasons, with a note that the only other browser that's customizable and powerful enough to be worth sacrificing battery efficiency for is Firefox. I love the features of Firefox and if it weren't so vastly customizable and superior to Edge/Safari I'd use and recommend native browsers only. I do tend to prefer Apple and Microsoft over Google but that's a long held bias of mine. I didn't care for Google when they were popular with everyone in the early days of Chrome's release. Hated Google before it was cool, hipster Google hater.

VirenM 8y ago

I understand most of the switches, but unfortunately any gmail address you correspond with will eventually tag and index you. Its difficult to fully separate your email history from Google when the whole market has been colonized. What I'm trying to say is your data will be accessible by Google servers regardless of which email service you use -- so why the paid switch?