this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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Years ago, Google shut down services I used and since then, I don’t get involved in anything they put out there on the market. This will include their AI service.
Only thing they are allowed to provide me is email. I’m even using YT and search drastically less.
Yeah I don't directly use any Google service that I'm not paying for. They either shut it down monetize the hell out of it or change how it works so that I have to change how I do things.
Why even use their email? It’s not encrypted so you’re the only one who can read it. They can read it too, and they do. They scan your email and use it to target ads at you. Bought something? They collect that data and look at the receipt, exactly how much you spent on each item. That’s creepy and weird.
Recommend switching to an encrypted email provider like Skiff, Proton, or Tuta. I’ve used all, but really digging Skiff at the moment.
They aren't using my emails for anything interesting as far as I can tell. Google ad sense either recommends I buy something that I bought months ago and don't need another one or recommends me content that I have zero interest in. I get so many ads for Epoch Times and Hillsdale.
Good UI and I don't care that they're scraping my email for anything, I don't even see the ads they want to serve me thanks to my ad lockers
Extra work to move to a new email for literally no gains for me
Ignorance is bliss
Lol, this is why people don't like the FOSS evangelists, you act like pricks that are better/smarter than other people
Hey, makes no difference to me. There are a lot of reasons to protect yourself and your privacy online. Ads is one. Government snooping is another. Hackers stealing your data is another. Rogue employees snooping on your data is another (countless stories of Facebook employees reading their exes private messages, I’m sure it’s happened at Google too). Being logged into Gmail makes it possible to track you on nearly any website you visit since Google trackers can phone home with your unique identifiers is another!
Good UX is a piss-poor reason to not care for your digital privacy, not just because it’s less important than the nuts and bolts, but because there are providers that offer encryption with good UX. Skiff is on par with Gmail. Proton isn’t far off. They both offer free tiers. Skiff almost offers the same amount of free storage as Gmail. The only difference is you don’t have that gross feeling like someone could stalk you on every website you visit, or read your messages.
Just advising you to use protection, for your benefit. But go ahead, bang the hooker without a condom. It doesn’t impact me in the slightest whether you heed this advice. I say this as someone who was one of the earliest adopters of Gmail. I had a Gmail account before they were publicly available. I don’t use that shit anymore.
FOSS and privacy are 2 completely different things. If Gmail software was FOSS his points would still be relevant. Try to dislike people for the right reasons at least.
Yeah, hate me for being kind of abrasive. Like me for being right and having your best interests at heart, not some corporation’s.
Same, but I still use Google docs to store copies of all my published work.