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Why I Quit Using Google

kylepiira.com

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Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#61

Post by awill »

yogthos wrote: post #58

I setup a personal NextCloud instance on a $5 Digital Ocean last year, and along with Fastmail, it replaced all the Google services I've been using. It took about an hour to get up and running, it went through version updates without a hiccup, and never gave me any trouble. I found it to be completely hassle free, and I can highly recommend it to anybody looking to take back control of their privacy.

It's not accurate to imply this is so easy. You're now responsible for your data, security and uptime. That means patching, backups and plenty of ops work.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#62

Post by davchana »

zamadatix wrote: post #17
pugworthy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If google gave a crap they would put a phone number to that email so you can talk to a human and resolve any issue Do you know how insanely hard that would be to staff and manage such an operations for a global corporation? It had a 1 BILLION MAU back in 2015.

Google One gets you 1 year of access to human support for a year so apparently not that hard. I'm sure many people would rather pay that amount just to get their ban reviewed rather than lose their existing email, chat, photos, files, and phone number. The 3 other ~1 trillion dollar tech companies all have customer support without issue.

I think once the account is banned, then you can't log into account to buy that Google One membership. You need to buy it before the ban.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#63

Post by buran77 »

close04 wrote: post #12
thatsenough wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that doesn't feed into the outrage machine and drive clicks.

The fact that a company is allowed to amass so much of your digital life but then lock you out with no recourse should cause outrage. It's no different than if your landlord, your bank, or the post office decided one day to lock you out and not even bother to give you an explanation, let alone to give you back your money and property. We live in a world where services like the ones Google provides aren't just optiona…

Not sure why this is getting downvoted. Having your data confiscated like this is definitely outrageous and should be illegal. Right now we rely on this being bad PR for the company doing it but that's not enough especially for the giants. The user pays for the service by allowing the provider to monetize their data not by forfeiting the right to even get a copy.

I'm actually hoping that some regulation will be put in place to protect users and ensure that they never lose their data.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#64

Post by Klonoar »

awill wrote: post #61
yogthos wrote: post #58

I setup a personal NextCloud instance on a $5 Digital Ocean last year, and along with Fastmail, it replaced all the Google services I've been using. It took about an hour to get up and running, it went through version updates without a hiccup, and never gave me any trouble. I found it to be completely hassle free, and I can highly recommend it to anybody looking to take back control of their privacy.

It's not accurate to imply this is so easy. You're now responsible for your data, security and uptime. That means patching, backups and plenty of ops work.

I agree - I've been doing this crap for 20 years, it's not "about an hour". This is an afternoon at the least.

Context: I've done it for myself and others recently.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#65

Post by ravenstine »

jvagner wrote: post #32
xenator wrote: post #7

I love that other companies have sustainable alternatives to Google services. But these articles looks more like hype train and doesn’t really add any new value for me. You are not building something new switching from one big corp to another small company that want to become another big company next day. Probably I’m getting old but I remember times when Google doesn’t exists. We had software for files, messages, ca…

The point of this article is to switch from one Google for a lot of services to a disparate group of providers for same services... if one of the service providers goes away, or is no longer palatable, only the service they provide needs to be relocated. Google can suspend your account and the 20-30 things you depend on them can go away (or, at least, be unavailable in a customized fashion based on your own data). Th…

To make matters worse, Google isn't known for their good customer service.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#66

Post by buran77 »

ravenstine wrote: post #65
jvagner wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of this article is to switch from one Google for a lot of services to a disparate group of providers for same services... if one of the service providers goes away, or is no longer palatable, only the service they provide needs to be relocated. Google can suspend your account and the 20-30 things you depend on them can go away (or, at least, be unavailable in a customized fashion based on your own data). Th…

To make matters worse, Google isn't known for their good customer service.

That's an understatement. Google's customer service is legendary in the sense that everyone's heard of it but nobody has actually been able to "see" it.

But having bad customer service is just bad service, confiscating users' data really not unlike theft.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#67

Post by tibiahurried »

I started using DuckDuckGo and so far I have been happy with it. Though sometimes I still need to resort to Google. Firefox is my primary browser. I constantly use a VPN. Bottom line I try my best to limit the ability of Google to track me.

That said, I still use GMail / GDrive / GDoc and keep a backup of everything on Amazon Drive were I also store my photos along with Apple Cloud. Basically, if Google were to close my account I will be able to recover all my data from Amazon. I trust these 3 companies to be serious about security. It will be a nightmare if I were to deal with 10 small companies and their vulnerabilities. Also, hosting everything myself? Security nightmare no thanks.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#68

Post by snisarenko »

nolroz wrote: post #56
ReverseCold wrote: post #55

I remembered seeing this post on Mastodon, and it turns out this website federates. My response from Mastodon is listed as a comment on this website. The wonders of ActivityPub...

I tried getting into Mastadon a while back but didn't manage to find decent instances to subscribe to. There's just so many! Any advice on where to get started?

Hey, I am working on a mastodon aggregator, which can help with exploring instances and figuring out which one to join. It should be launching soon!

https://mastodonia.club

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#69

Post by Simon_says »

beowulfey wrote: post #57
Mistri wrote: post #39

Has anyone else had experience with getting their Google account suspended? I literally use it for everything in my life, and without it I would probably lose access to a lot. I would change away from Google in a heartbeat but it just seems like too much effort if I can avoid getting my account suspended in the first place. If anyone has gotten their account suspended, what was it for and how can I avoid it?

Most times people get suspended for doing things that unsurprisingly go against the ToS. If you’re not developing software with googles API or anything a normal, everyday user doesn’t do you are probably fine. Of course it can still happen by random chance thanks to their algorithm going screwy but it’s not likely and if you’re still concerned Id consider at least starting the process.

Or you just spam emojis in a YouTube chat because the host requested it.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#70

Post by zamadatix »

davchana wrote: post #62
zamadatix wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google One gets you 1 year of access to human support for a year so apparently not that hard. I'm sure many people would rather pay that amount just to get their ban reviewed rather than lose their existing email, chat, photos, files, and phone number. The 3 other ~1 trillion dollar tech companies all have customer support without issue.

I think once the account is banned, then you can't log into account to buy that Google One membership. You need to buy it before the ban.

I don't even know if you still use Google One support post account ban I was just pointing out Google is not only capable but they already operate a human support service at extremely low cost.
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