| tl-dr; Google provide out-of-the-box solutions and mostly are free of charge. If you (general you) don't have time/effort/willingness/knowledge to create own secured solutions then they own you. It's something like a deal with the devil (hereinafter only "the deal"). He (devil) will give you everything...you give him your soul = privacy/life. Sadly, I also sold my soul (to Google and Microsoft) and several times, but i am trying to rescue myself. Long story short: Few years ago I had same intentions. Get rid of every "collecting personal information in an effort to provide better user experience". I performed online test what is visible about my PC from outside.[1] After test I disabled browser cookies, installed firewall, disabled all ports except of https, installed software IDS etc, used text-base web-browser - lynx [2] Usage of internet was terrible. I wasn't able read or use almost anything from web. (I those time I didn't know HN nor Github). I spent hours and hours researching and configuring own infrastructure - mailbox, calendar. But i gave up since it wasn't sustainable in hours of normal working man with other hobbies than sit front of computer. After all of this struggles I used (and still am using) out-of-box solutions from Google. Microsoft and Google are on the same boat. They know everything about you (general you). Sad is that you can use alternatives but it's pain in the butt and they know it. And they build on it. Sometimes I need to have things done and don't wanna tweak how to the simple things. And this is exactly time where they are offer "the deal". Last few weeks I am also thinking how to get rid of all collecting of sensitive data. You can create fake profile, but it doesn't matter. In days of machine learning they can create personality profile about you. And this scare me the most of all. Maybe 3rd party dont know your name, but they know you live there and there, you have 3 kids, blond wife, migraines, mid-class car - 1.6 tdi, you are xy politically oriented, love rock music, voted for abc. So what is conclusion? - my favorite phrase - "It's not so easy my friend". My Corp. services: Windows, Office 365, Linkedin, Google search, Gmail, Translate.google, Maps.google, Youtube, Android My alternatives in (parallel) use: Firefox/Opera, Elementary OS, DDG, small business mailbox at local domain registrator, Open-office Mostly thinking about getting rid of: Android, Gmail My lessons learnt: 1. Nowadays Internet usage of services from corps. like Google, Microsoft, Amazon is deal with the devil. Out of box solution mostly for free in exchange for your privacy. 2. Usage of alternative is pain in butt, on the other hand it worth, at least if you wanna save your soul and don't let it be subject of 3rd parties business. 3. Privacy is always questionable. Event they claim don't collect any sensitive data we can't be 100 % sure. 4. Usage of alternative solution require open-mind and persistence 5. Think what you really need and what is only crowd psychosis (everybody use it , i have to be the same). This require totally different mindset. Resources: [1] http://ip-check.info/ [2] http://lynx.browser.org |