patrick.net

I'd like to be a never-googler just as much as I wanted to be a never-microsofter back in the day. But it's very hard. I do limit using Google as much as practical, though. I have Nest cams that I'm not ready to give up on due to the sunk cost so far, and I'll occasionally throw up a google map, but for search I've moved to Duck Duck Go and my primary GPS is Apple Maps (kind of evil but not as bad as google). I don't use "google" as a verb anymore and just say "search".

The ultimate problem is that there are no perfect companies and short of living in a cave (which has an appeal, actually), it's hard to completely shun these social justice and censoring monoliths.

For me it's an issue of privacy more than anything. Been reading JJ Luna's How to be Invisible. Really eye opening how much we trust strangers and business's with our personal data. And how much danger we expose ourselves to because of it.

You may not be able to gat away from Google, but you can mitigate the money they make. Never click on Google ads, for instance.

NuttBoxer says

And how much danger we expose ourselves to because of it.

I'll look the book up, but what is the actual danger? Sincere question.

I like my privacy and I know we've gone back and forth on a cash post a couple months back. I use a VPN (that you actually recommended here) and never use my "real" email account for anything except bills. I have a common name so it's probably easier for me I suppose, but I could probably post my name here and it would still be tough if not impossible to find me.

WookieMan says

I'll look the book up, but what is the actual danger? Sincere question.

There's stuff like frivolous lawsuits, identity theft, mistaken identity, and crime. The author originally fell into this because he lived in Spain under Franco, and had to go into hiding for about 10 years. So government problems as well.
One example he gave was a guy who would hitch-hike, then offer to send the driver a small gift as a token of appreciation for the ride. They would give him their home address to mail the package, then he would show up and pretend to know the husband as pretext for entering the house. Once inside he would rape and murder the wife. Happened in New York area I believe.

A couple of days ago someone was locked out of their car outside my house (they had locked their phone and keys inside their car). I had googled for a locksmith. When I called the number it said that Google may monitor call for quality assurance (or something to that effect). Yikes! All your googles belong to us.... they're now giving google phone numbers to call (and I imagine taking a cut of the transaction).