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**Dockhead** · 22-02-2014, 19:03

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Google is transmogrifying itself into something like the Matrix. Here's a good article on what is going on: Google+ isn't a social network; it's The Matrix | Technology | theguardian.com

What Google is doing is trying to connect the dots between all your contacts, your browsing habits, your social networks. I find it extremely intrusive. Some time ago, I was forced to open a Google+ account in order to even access my many years-old Youtube account. I refused to give it my real name -- I don't want my name associated with my Youtube account, and don't want any of this information to be easily findable by Google searches. Now I get reports that my regular email address (the one registered with my Youtube account) pops up with the fake name which I gave then. And when I go into that Google+ account, there is no way to change the name.

So I have deleted the account altogether, which means 10 years of Youtube videos are gone (but I have them stored in other places and can repost them).

Has anyone else been through this? I am now trying to migrate out of this mess and into less intrusive systems. I need some place to put videos which does not associate my name or email address with them; I need a search engine which does not track and analyze my browsing habits; I need a good old fashioned mail system which does not share my contacts or suggest me to random people as a "friend".

Anyone else been through this? Any useful experience to share?

Stu Jackson · 22-02-2014, 19:23

My son removed Google as our basic search engine with DuckDuckGo. It's a start at least...

Therapy · 22-02-2014, 19:39

From all I have read there is really no easy way out. It is scaring me too.

Deck Scrubber · 22-02-2014, 19:44

It's the way of the world, the only way out is to switch off that computer.

conachair · 22-02-2014, 19:58

I have several Google accounts but no Google plus profile.
How does it work?
And can let Google off for a lot ad there's so much free stuff I use day in day out, like Google earth.

Sent from my SGP312 using Tapatalk

**Dockhead** · 22-02-2014, 20:00

Duckduckgo sounds very good.

The more I read about this whole situation, the less I like it:

Alternatives To Google And Gmail: Private Search And Email Services Promise Online Anonymity In The Wake Of NSA Surveillance

Matt Johnson · 22-02-2014, 20:06

Remember their motto: "Don't be evil"

bobofthenorth · 22-02-2014, 20:09

I'm never sure whether to be alarmed or amazed. I really like using Sketchup and I can't imagine living without Google Maps and Picasa is pretty cool too. But I'm not sure I want to be assimilated either.

Mind you .................. resistance is futile.

hellosailor · 22-02-2014, 20:18

Dave, it is hard to avoid the Evil Empire. If you use an Android phone, all of your contacts are being associated with you, and vice versa. Suppose one of them is a member of the Communist Party...there ya go, McCarthyism all over again, this is why the NSA and others trawl databases.

Got a GVoice phone? Every call you take or make goes into the database too. If you call a mechanic who happens to be a skinhead extremist...You've just been associated.

In order to avoid the Brave New World you have to look hard for alternatives. You must, MUST, use a VPN for all web access, and then hope that VPN isn't really a sham put on by another vendor. More cumbersome but better still, use something like Tor through a VPN. Assuming Tor isn't really a honeytrap. And you've got to stay out of "the cloud" because everything there is a target for hackers, or data miners. Ain't easy.

You may be glad to know that there are actually some groups that are trying to poison the well, by putting false data in these databases and intentionally corrupting them to make them worthless. Small movement, so far, but folks are paying attention.

Best thing you can do? Throw sand in the gears until they start giving us the option to NOT OPT IN. Not just "opt out", but NOT OPT IN.

senormechanico · 22-02-2014, 20:34

funjohnson,

Just like the current administration claiming they'd be "The Most Transparent Ever".
Riiiight.

Delancey · 22-02-2014, 21:16

I highly doubt Archibald Tuttle would be so naive as find any of the recent shocking revelations about data collection to be either shocking or revealing. Then of course there's George Orwell who wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four um like what, sixty five years ago?