A community for those that would like to get away from Google.
Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!
Be respectful even in disagreement
No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.
No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.
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Google has moved far away from "do no evil".
I feel like I'm always being watched - just to make some rich person richer.
I don't like ads, they're a menace to society, I will find something if I need it.
They have too much control in the world.
It's not just Google. But we don't need any of them. It'd be better if they didn't exist.
Google collects a lot of personal data and I don't like it. I disabled every Google app and service that was possible without changing OS or rooting the phone. Then I realized that few apps, that are important to me, did not work correctly without Google Services. So unfortunately I had to re-enable it. I'm using VPN though. Hopefully that messes at least a little bit Google's data collecting.
On PC Linux is nowadays my main OS but I have Windows 11 installed too (dual boot). There's still quite many compatibility problems with Linux.
I am de-googled for quite a while. Coming across goggle polluted pages and services really makes me feel bad now, like somebody standing behind me and watching
The advertising has become the engine in every possible corner. It's like searching billboards now, not websites. My email feeds the ads I get. My Gboard keyboard for my text messages feeds the ads I'm shown. Hell the websites I visit get advertised back to me. Google Lenovo for work reasons and a year later I'm still getting fed ads for Lenovo on other platforms that have no association with Google. It's like the Adoring fan of Oblivion who really really wants to make me happy by offering me things he heard me mention once Every. Single. Day! Dude stop! Shut up and leave me the fuck alone.
I wish I could shove Google off a cliff.
It's like searching billboards now, not websites
I like that phrasing, clever :)
Basically once they started being a military contractor actively implementing new AI solutions aiding Israel, the US, and more. Or, when they started doing evil instead of avoiding it.
(Please don’t @ me with all the “yeah but they did THIS AND THAT years ago… we all have our own cutoff point).
They help maintain the surveillance state. What more do you need?
If Google randomly decides to terminate my account for some reason and won't tell me why or allow me to reasonably appeal, I'm screwed.
GDrive, my YouTube, my play store purchases, my Gmail going back since forever, and even all these 3rd party sites where I used "login with Google" could be instantly toasted and irrecoverable.
I became aware that this is way way too much exposure to one company and every component is linked together so if, hypothetically, I left a comment on YouTube that triggered some angsty AI ban algorithm, which led to the whole account getting zapped, I would be one sad puppy.
Better to selfhost, encrypt all, and be in control of my own destiny.
Exactly this. As a European I don't feel comfortable anymore relying on any US service for essential needs. Stuff like youtube is fine, it's just entertainment. But I cannot rely on big tech on anything that, if suddenly gone one day, would cause me any sort of actual annoyance. When you think about it the list is quite long and sneaky.
Fucking hell that's a good point. I'd not thought of that
I started to think that about “login with Facebook” at some point too.
I feel there is a certain maximum amount of influence a for profit company should be allowed to grow to. They have long surpassed it.
Excellent point
Fuck their greed.
If you want a more elaborate answer, they hold too much power over users and they stopped truly innovating years ago.
They were evil back then as well but Google Now and Inbox were ways to siphon data that benefited users as well
didn't see anyone touching on the most important part, and that is the decisions regarding our data we make now are coming to bite us in the ass five or ten years from now. our chicken brains can't comprehend that, not really. we need a direct feedback loop: hot stove, finger, ouch - no more touching.
up until a decade or two ago, we didn't have the concept of forever in our lives. do stupid shit in school, in uni they don't know about it. fail at one job, the next one doesn't know about it. say something stupid in front of a love interest, the next one's blissfully unaware. in our current paradigm, all of them transgressions are with you, forever.
any and all corporations even adjacent to the advertising/harvesting/mining industries have lost the benefit of doubt, forever. our interaction with them is and should be adversarial from the get go. they should never be in the position to retain any meaningful data points and polluting their ingestion avenues and obscuring activity is mandatory.
edit: the AI example is touching on it.
That's a really good point. We've lost control of this information
For me it always felt a bit weird to give google all this data about me, but it was so convenient and their services often are very good and definitely user friendly. So I always told myself, what's the worst they can do? They are a corporation and they would only hurt themselves if they used their data against their users. And anyway they are US based. The USA are the biggest and oldest democracy which wouldn't allow evil forces to gain power.
Yeah, that was that.
My motivations are not specific to google.
I don't want a large part of my life and thoughts to be linked to my identity, queryable in someone else's database.
I grew up in DDR and know that a large fraction of people gain pleasure by having control over others. That data is an important avenue for that.
You can already see that governments all over the EU are trying to gain control over it. (To keep the children safe ofcourse).
That's a really interesting point. Would you be happy to share your experiences of DDR?
Sure, ask away!
Thanks so much! How many people actually believed in it? How prevalent was the blackmarket? And how safe did people feel?
How prevalent was the blackmarket?
Officially, everyone with the same job description had the same wages. This resulted in everyone becoming a slacker. So what eventually developed as a public secret, was that factories tolerated "theft" by the good employees.
So the person working in the canning factory brought home tins of food every month, which they would sell and/or trade. The boss could claim, and the books would show, that everyone has the same wages.
This is not limited to labour. Public administrators, for example, would be tolerated to put some people ahead of others for housing/holliday/etc, and they would ask for a fee.
It was a large, well known taboo that everyone, even party members participated in.
How many people actually believed in it? And how safe did people feel?
I can't speak for the early days. By the time I was born everyone I knew recognized it for what it was: the state as a weaponized tool to steal from and hurt others. An in-group of people decided how much equality and solidarity you deserve. You scratch their back, they grant you their leftovers.
Lots of the stasi files on people were shredded, and are intentionally slow being reconstructed, as they hope most people will be dead before they can read their own file. But estimates are that around 1-in-3 people were informants for the stasi. These are often neighbours, aunts, coworkers, ...
It was dog-eat-dog, and outside a small bubble you never fully trusted someone. Even then, no guarantees, as the schooling system (tried to) radicalize children into informing about their parents. The teacher would get benefits for each successfull "catch".
Of course! It's not just a black market, employers need to give incentives to work hard. And it encourages government bribes.
And yes, however noble the idea, the kind of people attracted to powerful positions often aren't nice people.
Trusting nobody is a hard way to live. How did the DDR effect you long term?
Trusting nobody is a hard way to live. How did the DDR effect you long term?
Quite bad tbh. We managed to emigrate in 98. But the distrust in others, what can you say to who, etc stayed as a reflex that requires cognitive recognition, and therapy, to lessen. I think of it like a light version of split personality.
I get that totally. Things learned in childhood are hard to unlearn. Thanks for sharing it's interesting and made me sure I want to start degoogling. I do NOT want to give people that power over me
I started degoogling because of Google's more and more transparent business plan of data surveillance. I'm not comfortable with "paying with my information" because of the uncountable (and frankly unimaginable) ways that information can be applied by third parties without my knowledge.
"AI" is one example which wasn't even on the chart when I started degoogling, but we can all be certain that Google and partners use any language sample available on Gmail and G drive to train theirs. This is the company that casually registered private WiFi networks in the course of mapping their Maps street view. They'll harvest everything they can.
At heart, I don't trust corporate mega-monopolies to take care of our best interests as online citizens, and as a European I'm super sceptical of becoming subject to less safe legislation (US, Chinese or whatever) that doesn't offer me protections that I have or expect at home.
By not using Google (or Meta, or Amazon, or X) I can deliberately pick and choose individual services — or host them for myself — rather than hedge everything on the benevolence of one corporation that doesn't give a shit about their users.
There's the privacy and constant tracking part of it, but it is also about not being hostage of the company. What if Drive is suddenly a payed-only service OR they lock me out of my account? I can recover faster and cheaper from a failing HDD in my NAS than I ever could from a locked (or deleted) Google account.
I've seen / was burned too many times by free software and services that suddenly disappeared of became overpriced and I don't want to be on that position again. Google is well known for killing stuff as well.
Yeah they might lose your account out of sheer incompetence, or because they can't be bothered to fix a mistake –why care when they are not accountable to anyone except shareholders.
There was that fun story of the guy who had the misfortune to take a picture of his son to send the doctor, which was flagged as cp and lost all his accounts, the police got involved, and even after the police cleared him Google refused to give him back his account...
Originally it was because suggested results were a waste of time and I had used linux in grad school. I liked being able to use my computer how I wanted. As I learned more and more the ethics became a strong enough motivator I got rid of gmail and stopped using google maps. I'm 100% degoogled now, and I never looked back. Sometimes I have friends or people at work who want to collaborate using google products. I tell them I take an ethical stance against it. I will never go back.
If you don't want to DeGoogle, that's fine. It's a personal decision. If you have all the facts and determine you'd rather stay doing what you're doing, that's fine.
I'd add to that great list also the problem of the steady enshittification of Google products. Just today, I was driving with Google Maps and suddenly it asked if I wanted to stop at a McDonald's. I haven't been to McD's in twelve years, so you know how terribly useful that suggestion was.
I find that Maps is one of the most difficult ones to get rid of. There are replacements of course, but they don't change directions based on current traffic patterns. I also find that for these replacements the routing isn't very good over medium/long distances.
Have you tried magic earth
Im a private person. I dont feel comfortable people knowing what i did, where i went etc. That applies to big tech as well. I dont have social media and never will.
Plus, i hate ads.
To me it's about how invasive and all-encompassing Google tries to be, while giving little to no respect to our privacy.
I never explicitly and clearly agreed for a random company to follow me everywhere on the Internet, track me on millions of sites even outside Google itself, and be as reckless with the data as a kid, selling it left and right to whoever might concern. Neither do I think regular people would give such consent if consequences would be clearly explained, and not buried deep into ToS.
No, I do not have much to hide. But even if you don't do anything bad, you don't want a random stranger to constantly look into your windows when you're at home, do you? It's creepy at least. For me, Google is that stranger. And Meta. And Microsoft. And Apple etc.
So, making as little room for them in my life as humanly possible is my goal.
privacy and political reasons: google has been firing employees that support palestine for fucks sake
source: The Verge
@CheeseToastie
Mainly political. While privacy and security are a concern, I'm more focused on stop using products by big corporations, in particularly those with ties to fascist parties and government agencies and I'm very wary of those who try to sell their products as "private and secure FOSS alternatives" while holding similar fascistic ideas.
i don't like the fact that fbi, nsa, cia, etc. could have access to my data. especially now
That single fed downvote haha
Tracking people across the internet ought to be forbidden by law.
i dont want google profiting by sending my data to the gov whos paying for it with my tax money
I'm trying to generally distance myself from all the VC sprouted billionaire former 'startups'. They're a disease. Those smug faces as they turn what they promised to be 'good' into a company that develops autonomous killing machines. All those smug bastards at the inauguration, happily paying the deposit to cash in on fascism. Unfortunately Google out of all of them has the deepest claws in me I think, android phone (Apple is in the same club/cartel imo so not much help), gmail, etc.
In addition to the privacy aspect, i wanted to reduce my dependency on outside/external factors as much as possible. I try to self-host and use FOSS where possible. Where not feasible, I try to diversify companies so I'm not overly reliant on one. That way, I can pivot much quicker if a company goes to shit.
Nothing is free. If you don't pay for the product, you are the product.
Privacy (different from anonymity) has become more and more important to me, and Google had access to nearly every part of my life in one way or another. I've cut out Musk, Zuck and Bezos, and I'm now nearly completely Google free as well.
I've often heard "why do I care if Google reads my emails? I've got nothing to hide". 2 great answers:
Unlock your phone and give it to me for an hour. Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean you don't want privacy. Google does exactly that.
Speaking of privacy, why bother closing the stall door in a public washroom? You're not doing anything wrong in there.
I’ve got nothing to hide
is a false dychotomy. you're not hiding, you're deciding what to share and that's a huge difference.
Ugh, "I've got nothing to hide" 🙄
My answer has been for a long time, "then take a stroll down main street naked, and tell your deepest secrets to strangers". Of course you have something to hide, otherwise you're a soulless shell of a person.