How to leave Google services and live under the radar
Ever since I had my previous experience with Google, I was seriously thinking of ditching Google services for alternatives that doesn’t track me, show me ads, snooping in on what I do, or try to change the internet for me. I strictly use only iOS devices simply because the hardware is really secure. For simplicity sake, I’m gonna assume you have an iPhone. You can’t be truly Google free on Android anyway.
But before we do all that, you need to check and unsubscribe to all the services that are connected to your Google account. Well it’s actually very simple to do that. Just go to the link below and log in with your Google Account. Select the services that you want to unlink, and just click on request removal button.
What this website does is simple. It sends an email asking the provider to remove all Google related data from its server. And the message is very seriously written.
And just like that I was unsubscribed from HostelWorld and I’m pretty sure they have deleted all the data associated with my account. But do expect a lot of follow up emails from these services. I have’t seen a better read automatic email that looks this serious.
This is the first step.
Now let’s assume you use the following services:
- Gmail
- YouTube
- Chrome
- Google Maps
- Google Calendar
- Google Search
- Google Photos
- Google Drive
- Google Pay
The hardest of these services to give up would be Gmail and YouTube.
We are constantly seeking for new content and probably YouTube is unavoidable at the moment. Gmail on the other hand is easily replaceable but then again we got sloppy with YouTube, so why not gmail right?
Gmail is definitely replaceable. I’m currently using and testing out ProtonMail.
I have heard Swiss Time, but lets just trust them okay? It has 4096 bit encryption. Nothing to search about this, it just means its almost impossible to interpret messages sent over email.
I explain encryption to people around me very differently.
Suppose you want to get to the number 10. You can do that infinite ways. 7+3, 15–5, 990–980. You get the point right? The method here is the tool for encryption. You might have the data (10) in this case but to get to 10 you need another. Once you define a random way to get to 10, that’s your key. The code or message or whatever you send, need this formula to unlock the original message.
Proton Mail has a clean interface but is not as fancy as gmail. Some people prefer the gmail.com end address so that they don’t have to explain the spelling of protonmail.com to them. But our agenda today is to remove Google and their tracking once in for all.
Additionally you can enable FaceID or Touch ID to the app (see the link above). ProtonMail is available on the App Store and you can get it here
WEB BROWSER
When it comes to web browsing, this is where most of the tracking happens. Your browser collects all sorts of data. Wanna see what all its collecting right now? Click the below link and see for yourself
All these data can be collected by any browser without asking your permission whatsoever. So always keep that in mind. But thankfully we are just talking about “living under the radar”. As far as possible from Google Inc.
Coming to desktop, the safest bet is :
Yes Firefox. Don’t get me wrong. Firefox can track you. But you can always disable “Suggest relevant content”, “Default search provider”, “Marketing Measure” and completely go anonymous. Plus it has better security than Chrome from Google itself anyway.
On the iPhone, Safari is a better choice. You can go to settings and change the default search to DuckDuckGo and you’re good to go! But for that you need to install the DuckDuckGo app. Majority of iPhone users use Safari anyway but with Google Search as default. This transition is probably the easiest to go through.
Apple Maps
Another transition that’s a bit difficult to get used to. Apple Maps was a joke 2 years back. You guys will definitely remember the memes that were going around when Apple launched it. Navigation was a mess, it had no support for India.
That’s old news. Apple Maps has improved. It has Ola cabs integration now, can give you turn by turn navigation and works straight from your lock screen. The Maps integration is really deeply built into iOS.
Apple Maps navigation was on spot when trying from Kerala. Although I noticed that it does not show shortcuts like Google or alternate routes when there is traffic. Probably in Mumbai or Delhi this might improve. There is also no turn highlight like on Google Maps when you’re about to make a turn. You might miss the turn if you take away your eyes from the Map.
I have been using Apple Maps for a week now haven’t come across any major issues other than the ones I mentioned.
Calendar
Google Calendar is very well built. So is Apple Calendar.
Google is one of the most visible offenders when it comes to tracking. All your meetings and events can be monetised very easily. Saving a friend’s birthday can lead you to see ads on search and also on the web. Whether you are looking for Google alternatives or you want to diversify trying out more choices like Lightning Calendar is up to your comfort. Since this article is assuming you have an iPhone, we will stick to Apple Calendar for the time being. Would love to know your experience regarding any other open source alternatives.
Search
We have reached the backbone of this article. Search is where we truly give up on our first love. Google.com. I really don’t know what I’ll type here but convincing people to leave google is like asking people to stop using combustion engine cars and move on to Tesla. It’s like is it worth it? Is it better? Will I miss out on something? Will I be forced back to using diesel cars?
Search is how Google makes money. As you know money is an important aspect of any business. Google search is Google’s best product and the most profitable. Google Search is no longer just search. You probably use it as a calculator, a currency converter, age finder, play with doodles, change units etc. Search has evolved tremendously. None of the other alternatives come close to the experience Google puts out.
Just see the same search from google vs duckduckgo
Ya it’s not looking good for team “Lets dump Google”. But here is the pain staking learning curve you need to go through. This is where we pay back the dues to countless web pages which missed traffic because of Google’s search crawler. It’s been a week and I don’t mind going the additional step to open a link for the sake of my privacy. Search accuracy of DuckDuckGo is on par with Google, minus the smart suggestions. If anyone working at DuckDuckGo is reading this, you know what we want!
You won’t find the business integrations too. When you think of it, Google has a tight lock. They know how to retain their customers. As time goes by I’m sure DDG will have more to offer. Once you completely get rid of Google Search, you are half way through in enjoying your private life.
Google Photos
My previous article was entirely on this topic. So not going to elaborate here about my experience with it. But here is a better alternative.
iCloud.
You might be a little skeptical about iCloud since the infamous iCloud leak.
On August 31, 2014, a collection of almost 500 private pictures of various celebrities, mostly women, and with many containing nudity, were posted on the imageboard 4chan, and later disseminated by other users on websites and social networks such as Imgur and Reddit. Famously called the Fappening.
Fappening happened not because of an iCloud leak. It was first reported as a security issue in the iCloud API which allowed a user to guess with unlimited password attempts. This was not true. It was later revealed to be phishing attack’s. Coordinated phishing.
This could have happened to any service. Rest assured Apple rolled out a much safer 2 step authentication method which will prevent something like this happening.
Migrating existing photos from Google is a painful task even with a strong broadband connection. That’s simply because even though I don’t take many pictures, I have over 25000+ photos. What I have done here is keep Google Photos app on the iPhone. With further sync disabled. It’s better to leave it that way.
I purchased 50GB of iCloud storage. Which is about less than Rs. 10o a month.
50 GB should be good enough at the moment. What surprised me was the upload speed. Around 3000 photos were uploaded to the cloud in under a day. Another good thing is, once uploaded to iCloud the photos are smartly removed from the gallery but their thumbnail remains. If you want to see a pic just click on it and it instantly opens. This is good if you have an iPhone with like 32GB/64GB of storage. Plus Photos app now has offline Google Photos like search which is probably the best feature.
Additionally, after you purchase iCloud, your phone automatically takes a backup of the phone to the cloud. You can easily remove it and can save around 20–30GB.
Drive
Google Drive is the easiest transition. Not many use it, but I know a lot of people who use Google Drive for work. When you purchased iCloud, you also get space for iCloud Drive. It’s the same.
Google Pay
Google is everywhere.
Imagine you wanna buy something. You search for it first on Google, which gives you the location to a store stocking the product. Then you drive using Google Maps to get to the destination and buy the item. You pay using Google Pay and return home. Did you just give away you entire activity to Google even without you knowing it? Yes it’s convenient . Thats the not the point. You have shared what you want with Google. They know your purchasing power. They know your bank balance and your Cibil score. Now they can show you ads relevant to your capacity.
I’m not against easy payments. UPI is probably the best thing that happened to the banking system in ages. But you can always use PhonePE or BHIM which does the same thing but breaks the tracking. But I’m not entirely sure whether they sell their data to a third party like back to Google again. So let’s just hope for the best here.
It’s true what some blogs say. You can never completely erase your online activity but you can sure as hell try to. If you follow everything written here I can’t assure you that you are Scott free of Google services but it’ll sure as hell make them upset.
One more thing…
In between all this do you wanna check if your password has been leaked by some website that you associated your say, Google Account with? Go here
https://www.haveibeenpwned.com/
Just type in your account see if your password is out there. Mostly it is. And it’s legit.
If you just made it till here, you just read the longest article I have ever written. Thanks for reading.
