dhole, I've resisted posting in this thread (the "don't get me started" thing), but now I can't help myself.
I too have been uncomfortable about Google --and a number of other online-based entities-- for many years, but have recently 'caved in'. It's now come to a point where the old, pre-Google, devices and services are all but extinct; still perfectly useful and functional, but simply no longer tenable and serviceable.
I now own a Google account, and an Android phone (Galaxy). I can't say I'm unconditionally thrilled (not by a long shot, actually).
The thing is, it don't really matter if you give Google your database -- they've already got your pieces together by looking at what everybody else has said about you. Your address, your picture, your social network; I'm sure they already know all that whether or not you personally are in the game. So, given that, you might as well be a good netizen and enjoy the modern gadgets (perforce accepting their apparently unavoidable breach of privacy).
But, what you still can do is keep your really private stuff, well, private. I mean your documents, your journal (if you keep one), and even your browsing history, although, in our ultra-connected modern world, you will have to sacrifice a good deal of speed and mobility for that. I'm sure this interest will be an underground thing some day soon. And I don't mean 'underground' as in paranoid wannabe revolutionaries, but rather 'cult' as in those zany audiophiles that prefer records over cd's.
Oops I did it. I'll shut up now...
I too have been uncomfortable about Google --and a number of other online-based entities-- for many years, but have recently 'caved in'. It's now come to a point where the old, pre-Google, devices and services are all but extinct; still perfectly useful and functional, but simply no longer tenable and serviceable.
I now own a Google account, and an Android phone (Galaxy). I can't say I'm unconditionally thrilled (not by a long shot, actually).
The thing is, it don't really matter if you give Google your database -- they've already got your pieces together by looking at what everybody else has said about you. Your address, your picture, your social network; I'm sure they already know all that whether or not you personally are in the game. So, given that, you might as well be a good netizen and enjoy the modern gadgets (perforce accepting their apparently unavoidable breach of privacy).
But, what you still can do is keep your really private stuff, well, private. I mean your documents, your journal (if you keep one), and even your browsing history, although, in our ultra-connected modern world, you will have to sacrifice a good deal of speed and mobility for that. I'm sure this interest will be an underground thing some day soon. And I don't mean 'underground' as in paranoid wannabe revolutionaries, but rather 'cult' as in those zany audiophiles that prefer records over cd's.
Oops I did it. I'll shut up now...
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