WetGeek Privacy is a human right. At least where I am from. I don't know whats up in your country tho. So how do your friends get to a conclusion that privacy is no more? Doesn't make sense. Do they also try to tell others that freedom of speech is no more? Would be the same nonsense.
People just do not understand that privacy shouldn't be a priority when you start using FREE services on the Internet. You become the product if you do not pay for it. And sometimes you will be the product even if you pay for it. That is how it is. (exceptions ofc opensource and community driven projects just like Linux distros etc. but we are talking about the big players like google here right)
But people also believe that it is such an improvement to kill off all google stuff and then move over to other (free) services like Microsoft Amazon or whatever else. What is the difference here? You are still the product, your Internet privacy is still not very protected by using such a service, no matter what the name is.
Moving around in the Internet with 100% privacy is almost impossible, IF you want to use the good parts of it. But when you drive around the streets with your car, you give up some parts of your privacy too. Because people can see you, they can identify you with your car plates for example. But you still do it, right? Because it is worth it for you maybe.
Also people confuse privacy and anonymity very often. These are two different things. But I guess that is another whole topic.
But in general getting rid of services from Company X to go to Company Y is just like an "addiction shift" for an drug addict. If this analogy makes any sense at all.
Does it matter that you might use Google Drive? I do use it, why not? I encrypt all my stuff myself before uploading, so it doesn't matter to me.
Do I upload my contacts to Google? No I do not because I've some responsibility towards those that are in my contacts list that maybe wouldn't like it that their data is uploaded to Google servers in plaintext.
Do I use Gmail? Hell no... I don't wanna have Google to know everything I do via Email, at all. I prefer using a service in my country with strict and good privacy laws and data retention laws and I pay for it.
Do I use Google search? Yeh, sometimes. But mostly not. There are more than enough alternatives out there already that work pretty good. And also many meta searches like searx.
Why not use YouTube(TV) ? What is the difference to any other TV provider and/or ISP? They all collect some kind of data. Funny enough, for music services nobody seems to care about pricacy at all. Never seen somebody complain about that. But when it comes to Video/TV people are concerned somehow? I don't understand that.
Nacho_Trebuchet
Startpage was bought by System1. If you care about your data and all that, you can keep using Google because this company isn't better at all with your data/privacy.
