Bleg: Getting out
With the way Google tracks everything and the way the want to ban anything that I like, like gun stuff, what other options are available? I mean, a full service solution for email, calendar, phone, everything. I’ve never cared for Apple products and don’t really dig how they treat their devices or customers. The windows phone and computer combo seems workable but its dearth of comparable apps available is limiting.
Is there anything I’m missing?
November 22nd, 2016 at 7:27 pm
Office 365 does everything Google docs does and more. It works on any platform (android, ios, windows, mac).
Send me an email and I can get you a discount.
Don’t bother with a Windows phone. You can even use Cortana on android, if you really wanna leave google behind.
November 22nd, 2016 at 7:43 pm
You’re just trading one tracker for another. I don’t care what company you swap to.
November 22nd, 2016 at 8:00 pm
I left iPhone for Windows Mobile 4 years ago, never looked back. Windows Mobile is great.
November 23rd, 2016 at 12:59 am
I was going to add that my Android phone links my Outlook calendar to my work schedule and…cr*p. That’s probably not helpful. Nevermind.
November 23rd, 2016 at 1:46 am
If Snowdon’s revelations didn’t scare people away from social media and Google, I don’t know what would.
November 23rd, 2016 at 3:19 am
Phone, tablet, and notebook PC.
Boutique prices. I don’t have any of these, just know of them.
http://combatstudiesgroup.blogspot.com/p/store.html
November 23rd, 2016 at 8:24 am
If you want the same degree of integration, with google docs reading from your calendar, etc, then you may be out of luck.
Some piecemeal things that help:
1)Use a different search engine. Duckduckgo dot com, for example, promises not to track or bubble you. Even if they are fibbing about that, it would fragment the data between google and duckduckgo. Duckduckgo’s search results are good enough for me maybe 98% of the time; if I’m not getting what I want, then I try google.
2)For things where you must be signed into google (we use google voice for free long distance, for example) set up a separate browser profile (to use the firefox lingo). We use that profile only for google voice. Each profile gets a separate cache/cookies/etc, so the google voice session doesn’t get to see that I’m reading saysuncle, for example.
3)Don’t use google mail. Either use your ISP’s imap or some other webmail. There are some supposedly secure options – Proton Mail for example.
4)Running e.g. NoScript helps stop a lot of tracking, although not google’s type – at the expense of sometimes trying to find out which blocked script is keeping the page from working right.
5)If you haven’t already, look at all of your google accounts privacy settings and turn off whatever you can. There isn’t much value I can see, for example, in having google remember every youtube vid I’ve ever watched.
6)When possible, open new pages in a new private window (using firefox lingo again). When you close the resulting window, all the resulting cookies etc will get erased.
November 23rd, 2016 at 10:50 am
Everything is being tracked. That is why the NSA built that huge data facility.
November 23rd, 2016 at 12:30 pm
Another Office 365 vote. Works great with iPhone. I just split my usage between google and bing, run as much no-tracking and HTTPS Everywhere as I can without making it annoying to go to websites.
November 23rd, 2016 at 1:25 pm
Tough breaking away form Google with anything Android. Same with Apple/iPhone.
anon coward has a lot of good points, but a new private browser won’t stop tracking via IP (common) but it will help with cookies. Just know that anything Flash related can store data in the flash registry in spite of this. So you really need to use something like flashblock routinely to avoid the end-run around cookies (flash data is not removed when you clear browser cache/cookies). BTW, this is why flash is not yet dead – it drives a lot of backdoor media/person tracking on the web.
Definately check you Google privacy options. They have made it hard to turn off location and voice tracking lately. Used to be you could store common locations and turn off the creepy location tracks (literal step-by-step historical tracking), but not anymore. It’s all or nothing.
I like Duck Duck Go but it’s limited a bit. Start there and branch when you must.
Also, EPIC Privacy browser. Not perfect but better responsiveness than Tor. It appears Google has not cracked that nut yet (based on Google verify processes).
The real answer is going to be a federal anti-trust examination and legislation. The fact your phone, cable, and internet connections are all controlled by firms like Google – who demand that ad buyers not use competing services – is straight-up Sherman Anti-Trust territory.
We also need some strong privacy protections built into law, but I wouldn’t hold my breath that any Congress R or D will help us out.
November 23rd, 2016 at 8:00 pm
If you’re actually concerned you’d be running a VPN
November 23rd, 2016 at 10:07 pm
Don’t look at me.
I still use a flip-phone.
November 24th, 2016 at 7:07 am
@Other Steve: A VPN to where?
That’s the rub. There are for-pay services out there for proxy/VPN that might work. One problem with that is that the “exit nodes” of the proxies are mapped and known by the commercial ad providers (this includes most Tor permanent exit nodes, fwiw).
A number of websites actively block traffic from known exit nodes (effectively blocking some of your content) because they are not able to “personalize the experience” – ie track the individual and location. Also, banks don’t like anon proxy nodes for security reasons, but I don’t think they’re the ones we’re worried about here.
I mentioned the Epic Privacy Browser above. It’s chief claim to fame is a proxy network that you can use. I have little trouble with most websites, but noticed sometimes things get weird – for instance, Tumblr blocked a lot of media going through Epic. I had to go back to Firefox to see all those Trump memes last month. Glad that’s over.
November 24th, 2016 at 11:39 am
I figure that no matter what you use, you’re being tracked. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon … Consider getting into the Amazon ecosystem. They know what you are doing, but since they are making money from you the old-fashioned and honest way, they probably won’t try as hard to monetize you in the Google way.
Other than that, try Privacy Badger. It chases away the tracking cookies. Mostly.