That word is fine, but not the one I meant. You got the meaning though.

Now about your relationship with Macrohard...

I have used Google until a few years ago. I have used their OSs, I have used their search, told it things that I would not tell a human. My main social media was always Youtube. My work uses Google products. We use Google Workspace, Angular, Google's cloud service, basically anything that is not device specific is in some way related to Alphabet. Yet I only access my work account over Tor when I can and I do not install company software on my phone (With the exception of one 2fa code, which might change with the aid of a hardware key). I run Qubes os to have full control of the things that happen on my device. When I use Google Meet, I quickly give the vm that my browser runs on the permission to use my mic and if I feel generous my webcam. Meeting finished? Permission revoked. Nobody at my work has ever said a negative word, in fact most people find the way I work fascinating, which allows me to share this way with them. It may seem like you can't control this, or that it's gotten out of hand, but that is not true. You just have to start and don't stop going. It's not terribly hard either, it just takes quite some reading and some actions. I believe that in a years time most people in priviledged countries are able to cross most of the bIg CoRp SpYwArE out of their lifes. In fact, I have seen and helped dozens do so and the longest it took someone to get a more private life this way was about 8 months. That person was not great with technology (I hate IT support so much I could cry).

The one benefit that I have noticed the most is related to targeted ads, no surprise there. It goes ridiculously deep. I always thought that I am impervious to ads and, well, there was some truth to that. When Google showed me ads, I either disregarded them, or they were just not catered to me, because "I tricked the system". Well, bullshit. I've noticed that since I use Piped instead of Youtube, the videos I get recommending products I am interested in are far less frequent. They made me believe that I had hair loss and I bought vitamins for my hair. I am 19. I have a full head of hair.

Like all things in life, digital privacy is an area one can improve on. I have found living like this to improve my mental health. I am no longer kept in a never ending loop of advertisements and algorithms that feed me shit. As a result, I have gotten vastly more productive. I have lost interest in most of my expensive hobbies. By the time that I got out of this never ending loop of crap, my mind has started to wander again and I no longer have a problem with ADHD (it's still there, but it doesn't cause issues in my daily life). This might seem unintuitive, but I am just much more relaxed amd focused because if the lack of mentsl pressure. Being caught infused by so much content numbs most people. Ever looked at a person that blankly stares at their screen? Well, you are likely no different right now. My father has recently told me about a study where they compared looking at screens to a trance like state. When we look at something in the real world, our eyes move a lot. Evne if we focus on something. When we are under a trance, our eyes do not move. We blankly stare at what we are looking at. Sounds familiar? What I mean to say is not that they are manipulating you through trance, it is simply a very similar action. I don't think I need to tell you how much one can be influenced simply by the text they read on their screen. There are alternatives to the tools you use for your work. Use them. It will not mean the end of your career. And if you seriously can not find any alternative, cross them out of your private life anyways. That's what privacy is about anyways. Use a free Proton Mail instead of a GMail or Outlook. Buy Minecraft, but never use your acoount to play. Play with an offline account and, while you're at it, use a mod that disables telemetry. Yes, Microsoft tracks you in Minecraft. How else did you think they could monitor chats? They store them too, so be careful what yiu want to share, as you do not only share with players.

Do yourself a favour. Keep your mind clean. If a random teen did it, you can do it. And I am by far not the only one.