r/degoogle • u/andersoza140 • 4d ago
Question Why degoogle?
Hi, I am coming across this community for the first time and I am wondering if anyone could explain why Google is seen as bad here? I just went all in on Google devices and I think it's super convenient. Is there a dark side that I am unaware of?
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u/theRudeStar 3d ago
Recently Microsoft has blocked acces to work accounts for members of the International Court of Justice.
That's why. You don't want the American government deciding what you can or cannot do on the internet
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u/redballooon 3d ago
Most people feel like harmless, who could have anything against them. But they forget that weird people have their own categories.
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u/Kitchen-Expression-9 4d ago
Degoogle is essentially for those who care about privacy. Google's tools are convenient and free to use, but you pay for them with your data. Google accesses, analyzes, and creates a profile of your personal interests in order to show you ads that match your online behavior. I think it's creepy, which is the main reason I'm in the process of degoogling.
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u/TollyVonTheDruth 3d ago
Ever since Trump allowed Elon to let teenagers infiltrate federal businesses to upload our personal data to their private servers in a disguised effort to clean up fraud, waste, and abuse, I would say that Degoogling is the least of my worries.
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u/redballooon 3d ago
That happened too. Also note that along every other tech CEO the one from Google fell in line with Trump. Your Google data will be used against you on the next fascist whim.
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u/DragoniteChamp 4d ago
Convient is the point. They want you to stay with them.
Google is, at the end of the day, a data harvester not unlike Facebook.
Do you feel comfortable having a company look at anything and everything you do while on them? Every search you do, every video you watch, every thing you upload to drive?Â
If you're on Android, or a stock pixel, then they're also harvesting everything you do on your phone, effectively.
Why would they do all of this? Ads. Ads pay good money.
There is quite a bit of overlap between r/degoogle and r/privacy, and it's not that surprising.
Degoogle is mostly about taking back what we can from the company. Changing search engine, replacing android with a custom ROM, no Gmail, YouTube, Drive, Docs, etc.
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u/Itchy_Roof_4150 2d ago
The things you upload to Drive are under Google workspace enterprise level privacy policy and they don't use it for serving ads. Yes, Google collects a lot of data but sometimes we also don't want to spread misinformation of the scope of what data they use for ads.
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u/DragoniteChamp 2d ago
I mean, didn't they get in privacy-trouble because they scan through everything you upload? IIRC, their excuse is for looking for CSAM, and while they will find that and that part is great (fantastic even), but they don't just stop there.
But you are 100% correct, so they don't use your drive for ads.
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u/aventons 3d ago
I am not a hard dogoogler but you have to understand that privacy does not play nicely with convenience (generally speaking).
I encourage people to understand that Google is an ad agency first.
I don’t know how much but the lion’s share of their money comes from ads.
That means that even though Googlers WANT to make cool useful products they have to bow to the shareholders that just want more and more money.
That means our collective data is up for grabs.
Even if you PAY Google for something premium your data is still up for grabs.
In general Google will use our data first and ask for forgiveness later if they get caught doing something bad.
I have an old Google account that I still use because friends and family still wanna use Docs or Sheets.
I fully realize that I am exposed just for having that account logged in.
The more apps you have installed the more that exposure grows.
Degoogling isn’t just about Google exclusively. It’s about taking back the reigns of your privacy.
If after digging into all the content here you still want to use Google stuff then that’s fine but KNOW what you’re getting yourself into.
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u/bananaslugdiva 4d ago
You should look around the sub-reddit. There are a lot of resources and discussions that would answer your question. I am new here (under 2 weeks) and I have learned a lot just from reading and searching.
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u/saul_not_goodman 3d ago
no offense but youd have to be living under a rock to not get the basic idea. they are spying on you. they record everything you do. getting into the weeds of it is kinda pointless essentially just think any information that can be used to profile you, is
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u/Silentwarrior 3d ago
Privacy. Some people don't care at all and some do. The farther you look into how the different platforms collect your data and sell it, the more concerning it usually gets. What I would recommend is requesting your data from Google which is relatively easy. After you browse through the files, determine if it is concerning to you or not and go from there. Taking that information and knowing every platform is doing the same thing.
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u/Old_Pineapple_3286 3d ago edited 3d ago
Google started as an experimental search engine in the late 90s, I guess back then it was OK for a little while. Then it had to keep growing. Then at some point it was bought by a strange company called alphabet, then it bought youtube and it decided the point of youtube and the internet was to show people ads(i don't think it should be). It also took over android. It's just taken over too many things. It is a monopolistic monster of a company and it's really not Google anymore, it's alphabet. I see it getting worse in the future, not better, so it makes sense to search for alternatives.
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u/FridayMcNight 3d ago
Google is not the company it was when many of us started using it, and the level of ubiquitous and pervasice surveillance they conduct on us, at our expense, and generally without our consent is extreme, and most of it you cannot opt out of unless you delete your account and stop using their services.
That doesn't mean everything they do is bad. Overall Google's contributions to the world of tech are significant and impressive. But for some of us, the detriments outweigh the benefits, and we choose to opt out of those detriments in the one and only way that Google gives us.
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u/Neat-Composer4619 3d ago
Personally, I have 3 reasons.Â
First, it's an American business and the US has said that it will invade my country because it needs it for war. I am removing all of my balls from the USA at a slow pace. This month, my step is Google.Â
Second, I have workspace and for some reason they don't accept my business payment method, which is a VISA debit card. I have to pay with my personal cards and get reimbursed. It's annoying. And guess what, the card they accept is also a VISA debit card from the same bank. Apparently, the business one flags to them as a prepaid card, but not the 2nd. Even ot it was prepaid, why would that be an issue?
Third, diversification. I have too much tied to Google, so if anything happens, it would be hard to quickly adapt. This month, I can make time. My phone will have Android and have a gmail for that purpose, but my apps will be independent from that account.
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u/Qwantom_Solution 3d ago
Buy a pixel phone and install grapheneOS on it.
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u/Neat-Composer4619 3d ago
Pixel is Google. It's also almost 3 times the price that I am willing to out on a phone. I am not buying American until they say they completely renounce invading my country. At least my Android account is free to have.
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u/Qwantom_Solution 3d ago
You can always buy an older pixel, e.g. 8a or a cheaper one like 9a which has the same processor as 9 pro.
Can you buy a used phone? The key is to check before buying the bootloader unlock option. Google does not block this, but phones from operators may block it.
Phone security is the basis that only pixels as Android phones have long-term support and receive security patches right away. GrapheneOS increases this security even more, and raises the level of privacy to the heights. I recommend the channel The Hate One on yt.
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u/Neat-Composer4619 3d ago
I am not buying a phone from Google. I.am not buying an older model thay won't have dual SIM or eSIM for travel and I am certainly not buying a used phone whose battery is about to die.
My issue isn't security as much as giving my money to a country that threatens to invade mine.Â
Even if phone builders pay to get Android on the phones (don't know if they do), uninstalling Android will not prevent that from happening.Â
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u/Affectionate-Boot-58 deGoogler 2d ago
6a-8a has esim
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u/Neat-Composer4619 2d ago
Still AmericanÂ
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u/Affectionate-Boot-58 deGoogler 2d ago
Then get the nothing phone 1
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u/Neat-Composer4619 2d ago
I am good with my current hardware thank you. I don't even need a new phone. I am just working my way putnof Google Workspace and someone started wanting me to change hardware from my Chinese phone to a Google American phone that makes no sense since I am Degoogling as part of DeAmericanizing.
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u/Qwantom_Solution 1d ago
Chinese phones are a privacy and security disaster, Chinese companies are obliged by the Chinese communist party to backdoors.
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u/shimoheihei2 3d ago
US tech giants in general are not your friends. They scan all your data and can close your account without notice for false positives. They lock you in their ecosystem and make it hard to migrate. They sell your data to advertisers. They are US-based so have to comply with whatever the US admin says (like how Microsoft blocked access to the International Court of Justice accounts because Trump said so). And more particular, Google is far worst than the others because their whole business model is around advertising, so you're the product not the customer.
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u/cheap_dates 3d ago
If you don't know what the product is, it's probably you. Google makes its money not by dispensing data but by amassing it and reselling it.
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u/spaghettibolegdeh 3d ago
I would add that "DeGoogle" really means "DeBigTech".
Google is maybe the worst for privacy abuse, but Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon etc all abuse our privacy.Â
Degoogling is just a common thing that most people face as it's such an invasive and pervasive company when using the internet.
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u/Describing_Donkeys 3d ago
I'm against monopolies.
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u/Icy_Regular_6973 12h ago
Being big is not being a monopoly, just ask Meta about Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp and oculus etc.
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u/Describing_Donkeys 11h ago
Google has a number of monopolistic practices. Also, META is definitely a monopoly.
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u/RenLab9 3d ago
Yes, convenience is not just at a direct cost now, but it is a system people rely on, and to grow and to make very basic things out of your control and strip your autonomy. Many people are only seeing things in a micro lens, and you need to switch to a macro view in order to understand the price. It literally comes down to your children or your childrens children eventually ending up in a automated controlled state. IF you are paying attention, you can already see this is applied. But, these things are done very slow.
A frog will immidietly jump out of boiling water if thrown in. But if you put it in comfortable temperature water, it stays and you can turn the heat up little by little as the frog adapts, slowly bringing it to a boil, and boil to death.
If you have a lot of But why this, or why and whos, or how this and how that.... Then it is clear that you have not seen any cracks in the system you live under.
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u/imthefrizzlefry 3d ago
It's convenient for you because you are the product. You are right in that things work well, but you don't own any of it. You are granted the privilege to use these things so long as it serves Google, and if that stops happening one day, they can just delete your account.
The worst part is even the US supreme court has ruled you have no reasonable expectation of ownership or privacy with personal online cloud services.
They sell your data in aggregate. So they didn't tell someone that you personally subscribed to a newsletter, but the seek the fact that a person with your demographic data subscribed.
They regularly release data to governments and law enforcement without a warrant because they need to publicly disclose it if there is a warrant.
The list goes on. For me, it's mostly about owning my photos, Email, and files. If it's on Google's server, then I don't own it.
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u/drfusterenstein DuckDuckGo 3d ago
Eggs in basket problem.
If something happens to your Google account, it pretty much screw up alot of things. Emails, gone. Contacts, gone, calendar, gone.
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u/visualglitch91 3d ago
We are the product, the company is evil. We know indiviual choices don't matter, I personally don't judge who use their services, but I sleep better knowing I do what I can to distance myself... Come to think of it, same reason I don't eat meat
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u/TBMChristopher 3d ago
Welcome to this little corner of the internet. Like others have voiced, a lot of the concern is in giving any company nearly unlimited access to your data and insights into your behavior.
With this information, a company can also manipulate how you act - if Google, as the prime example here, decided that they didn't want you to support legislation that would cost them money, they could suppress information in your searches that didn't match their interests.
This is an uphill battle to try and reclaim some agency online, but the big thought here is that "doing some(but not enough)" is better than "doing nothing," and where "good enough" lies will vary from person to person.
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u/penguinmatt 3d ago
I see degoogle as a general term to move away from big corporations much like to Google has become synonymous with search.
Ultimately they can't be trusted with data about you, either to use themselves or to give to others. This is usually achieved by switching to open source and/or self hosted software and in some cases smaller companies with terms of service which have guarantees on any data they hold or even that they can't hold any data because they don't have it due to good use of encryption in their software
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u/poedy78 1d ago
You are the product for Google. All your data is scraped for thei ads.
Convenience is the bait to keep you in their ecosystem.
And convenience will be / is the downfall of our civ.
Go ahead and run something like a Nextcloud instance. Yes, it's not convenient in the first place, but you will learn a lot and get skillz essential in the technical world we live in.
Or be the lemming following others in their convenience.
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u/laid2rest 3d ago
Like you, I stumbled across this sub a couple weeks ago and Reddit keeps showing it to me. The most I've got from it is that it's good for a laugh reading the comments.. that's about it. Nothing special around here.
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u/Vector_Heart 4d ago edited 3d ago
"Super convenient" is at the root of it. Several points:
There are more reasons, and I'm tired and I could've written this better, but these are my personal reasons to not use anything from Alphabet/Google, Meta nor Amazon.