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Why I Quit Using Google

kylepiira.com

71–80 of 177 posts

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#71
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Imagine if your landlord decided to not only evict you but immediately confiscate any possessions you have in their property.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#72
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Google's customer service is definitely quirky. You have to write up your issue somewhere and then submit it to this strange orange 1990s-looking website. Then they prioritize tickets with input from random strangers on the internet before they can be seen by someone with enough authority to help you. But generally if you can get into the top 30 issues or so, someone will help you.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#73
post #25

I haven't used Google for anything but search in years. It just seemed unnecessary. Mail is on Thunderbird connected to an IMAP server. Browser is Firefox. Phone is Android minus all the Google stuff, plus FDroid. Phone mail is K-9 mail. Maps are on ZNavi. Location provider is Mozilla. Software development and docs are on Github. Backups are on iDrive. Videos are uploaded to Vimeo. OS is Ubuntu LTS. Sometimes I use D…

Bing and Google are browsers now?

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#74
post #61
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.

Sure, easy for a technical person. That said, Digital Ocean has automated backups, and security mostly consists of making sure you do your updates in a timely fashion. I've literally had to do no other ops work in over a year running NextCloud, and I haven't had a single downtime.

Running a server for yourself and your family is a far smaller effort than administering a public site.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#75

I quit using their search due to their sudden lack of ethics in the last few years. As well as my own disgusting experience I had doing business with them (treated me like garbage when invited to demo my tech. All their competitors I met with around same time were professional/respectful; deal or no deal) and then more so other stories detailing they do the same to others. Upon seeing that I was like wow my experienc…

> treated me like garbage when invited to demo my tech

Do tell this story.

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#76
post #64
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I installed it using Snap and Let's Encrypt using this guide [1], and everything worked out of the box. Been running and upgrading it since without a single issue. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[1] https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-inst...

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#77
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?

The ones I know of are:

- saying you're under 13 on YouTube (probably elsewhere as well)

- TOS violations that malware performed using your account (eg. using your google session to share malware using drive)

- Using drive to share or store copyrighted content

- spam, eg via gmail

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#78
post #25

I haven't used Google for anything but search in years. It just seemed unnecessary. Mail is on Thunderbird connected to an IMAP server. Browser is Firefox. Phone is Android minus all the Google stuff, plus FDroid. Phone mail is K-9 mail. Maps are on ZNavi. Location provider is Mozilla. Software development and docs are on Github. Backups are on iDrive. Videos are uploaded to Vimeo. OS is Ubuntu LTS. Sometimes I use D…

Bing and Github are Microsoft...

Re: Why I Quit Using Google

#80
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption is that takeout would not work anymore once you are suspended. So unless you are proactive and takeout your data every day, you will probably lose some data

But, according to gdpr, they still have your data even if you're "suspended", so they should make it available to you. I haven't had a suspended account yet but if google really doesn't let you copy your data under any circumstance, they will have even more fun with the data protection agencies.

Google isn't really known for their respect of the GDPR.
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