Goodbye-gle

[liv]

I've already made more posts on the topic than you probably want to read, but in short I have definitely lost my faith in Google.

I joined G+ because of the like Facebook but not Facebook thing. And then there was a big row about Google insisting that people have to use names that fit their crude pattern, consisting of exactly one forename and one surname, neither of which looks like a dictionary word, contains punctuation or comes from mixed linguistic origins. Which is bad enough, but to make it even worse, Google are enforcing this daft policy by arbitrarily banning people whose names they don't like, sometimes just from Google+ but sometimes from all Google services including Gmail and Android phones.

In the course of this it became more and more clear that even if Google manage to amend this policy and fix the enforcement, there's a deeper problem. They are using their massive amounts of data aggressively, and intend to continue doing so. I don't know how long this has been going on, but now I've noticed it I want out. They are making and broadcasting connections between, eg, different email addresses accessed from the same computer. They're mining the social graph to make explicit connections that I would rather keep private (eg connecting my real name stuff to this journal via a Flickr account that has friends in common). It's always been possible for Google to do this, I just trusted them not to, but that's no longer the case.

I've always had a paranoid theory that one day Google would turn around and say, we own your life, now hand over the cash or we'll destroy you / lock you out of the internet. But of course what has actually happened is much more subtle. It's more like, hey, why don't you come and join our "social network" (on our terms, even though it's really not in your interests). I mean, hey, look at all this data we have, and all these lovely internet tools, you wouldn't want anything to happen to them, would you? I think they've tipped their hand early enough that it's still possible to escape. Or at least I hope so.

I can't be doing with links being broadcast when I want them private. Not secret, I know nothing on the internet is secret, just private. I particularly can't be doing with it when my employer is about to move over to Google Apps. Obviously I'm going to be logging in to my work email from the same computer as my personal email. And obviously I really do not want Google to say to my students, hey, you are friends with sometimes correspond with Dr B___, perhaps you'd like to check out her blog here on Google+. And people who like that blog often like this Dreamwidth journal...

To some extent, yes, the horse has already bolted. But in order to minimize how badly this messes up my life in future, I have taken some steps. I am going to delete ("downgrade") my Google+ and public profile; I am pretty certain that takes out Buzz as well, not that Buzz ever got off the ground. "Going to", not already have, because there's a mass protest against the names policy involving lots of people deleting on 1^st September and I want to join them. This takes away one problem, which is that if some griefer doesn't like my name, they can flag my profile and Google may respond by suspending my account and possibly blocking access to Gmail. It also takes away the temptation to put personal stuff on a blog that is not just insecure, but anti-secure. And I hope it will leave me with fewer links to a social graph that helps Google to identify me.

The second step I have taken is to remove my email from Gmail. That was one hell of a wrench, I've used it for 7 years and it's been my main email address since I left Dundee in 2005. And I can't deny it's a very very good email system. I have moved to Zoho, who I'm now paying $24 per year to manage the email at my domain. It's slightly worse than Gmail, but not actually ridiculously worse, and $24 gets me an account that is free of adverts and out of Google's tentacles. So my main reason for this post is to ask you to email me at my domain in future. Don't write to my old Gmail ID, please. I am not deleting the account, mainly because I really like Google's IM system [ETA: and I do plan to carry on using it because most of friends are there]. But I am setting myself up so that if Google's behaviour with broadcasting personal data and inferences from personal data gets any worse, I can delete it without any serious consequences.

I think the next step is to do what I've always held back from doing, and start blocking Google ads. Does anyone have a step-by-step guide to doing this? I assume it starts with "install a Firefox extension", but I'm not sure which ones are best to use or what the magic incantation is to hide Google ads.

ETA 2: Thanks commenters who pointed out that I can use Jabber to talk to Google contacts! I'm now retiring my Gmail account altogether; if you want to talk to me on IM, see my profile for my username @jabber.org. I think I've added most of the people I regularly chat to.

Comments

[pseudomonas]

I'd recommend Ghostery as an all-purpose anti-tracking plugin.

[liv]

Thank you, that looks useful. I've actually made a positive decision to block only Google and Facebook for the moment. In general I don't mind paying in data and attention in exchange for getting free services, within reason. And some trackers are legitimate IMO: it's ok by me if webmasters track usage statistics so they can improve their site. Also I want to make sure Google gets hit in the wallet for playing fast and lose with users' data and trust. So I am going to continue allowing rival companies to show adverts to me, while hiding Google's.

[lovingboth]

AdBlock Plus does it for me. If you want to see other ads, you can whitelist them.

[pseudomonas]

AdBlock Plus has a "privacy" list too, which is why I started using it :-/

[liv]

Thank you. I think I've heard vague bad things about AdBlock as a company but I can't remember what or where. And I have the impression it's a bit complicated to use; for example, I don't want to have to keep track of the exact addresses of servers that are generating ads in order to be able to block them. Ghostery seems easier so far as it just presents a list of the most common problems and I can check boxes to keep or get rid of them. I will look into AdBlock again if I decide that Ghostery isn't adequate.

[pne]

I don't want to have to keep track of the exact addresses of servers that are generating ads in order to be able to block them.

What I do is delegate this decision to a list - AdBlock Plus has the option of subscribing to one or more lists of blocking rules which people compile. So you can simply trust someone else to identify relevant ones and to keep their list up to date; I'm subscribed to a German-specific one and a "general" (mostly English-language) one.

Since ABP gives you the option to subscribe to a list right when you install it, with a handy list of possible ones, I imagine that most people use it this way, rather than compiling their own list or adding hosts one by one when they become aware of them.

[dsgood]

Take a look at Diaspora; see joindiaspora.org.

[liv]

Um, I already have you as a contact over there, and in fact I think I may have invited you originally!

More seriously, I love the idea of Diaspora, but the site isn't even close to usable yet. Their rate of feature development is really slow compared to even a small, mostly-volunteer based site like DW. And they just don't seem to be ready to cash in on big privacy scandals. Last several times people have been deleting their FB accounts in disgust, Diaspora has been completely silent. In the current Google+ scandal, while a few geeks are trying to persuade their friends to try out Diaspora instead, again, total silence from Diaspora. I really do wonder if they're ever going to be ready. Even my quite geeky crowd are finding the barrier to entry just too high.

I'm hoping to be wrong, nobody would be more delighted than me to see Diaspora take off as a real alternative to the current social networking options. But right now it's not looking viable and I don't feel I can justifiably encourage my friends to use it.

[siderea]

I intend to delete soon, too. I'm not sure I will manage to finish all I want to by 9/1, but I'd like to join the protest.

[liv]

I think I can say I've been inspired by your posts to stop sacrificing privacy for convenience and get the H out of Google. However, last time I tried to act on something you said about Google+ I offended you because I completely misinterpreted what you were actually saying about the service. Anyway, the deed is done, I have deleted Google+ and my public profile (which was starting to feel more and more like a liability anyway). And if you're intending to delete too I feel more confident that I'm right in considering myself persuaded by your arguments.

[pne]

I am not deleting [my Gmail] account, mainly because I really like Google's IM system [ETA: and I do plan to carry on using it because most of friends are there].

Hm, isn't Google IM based on Jabber/XMPP? Doesn't that work across domains?

In other words, I wonder whether it wouldn't be possible to use a different Jabber server and then ask your contacts to add you@example.com as the new address.

Disclaimer: I've never really used Google IM so I don't know whether you can add non-Google-IM-but-still-Jabber contacts there (easily or at all).

[emperor]

LJ has a jabber server too (maybe DW could/will also?), but I've not tried talking to my google contacts via the LJ jabber server; I suspect it wouldn't work.

[pne]

talking to my google contacts via the LJ jabber server

Is that how it works?

I thought the server was only for the people connected to it... so if an LJ-Jabber person talks to a Gmail-Jabber person, then their client connects to the Gmail Jabber server and delivers the message. If the Gmail person replies, then their client connects to the LJ Jabber server to send the response. So clients are not permanently connected to one server (as on IRC).

But I could be misunderstanding this.

And even if I'm not, I guess it depends on which Jabber client the Gmail person is using: if it's a standalone one such as Pidgin/Gaim, it probably stands a bigger chance than if they're using a web-based one provided by Google, which might not "do" the whole Jabber federation thing.

[pseudomonas]

I have; it does work, but lj jabber service is down half the time these days :(

[liv]

denise has explicitly said that DW won't be running a Jabber server, precisely because of LJ's example: it's really buggy, it's not their core competency at all, and the fact that it's down half the time makes LJ look bad and costs a lot of support effort without any real returns. But I used to have an account at earth.li and I expect there are other free Jabber servers out there.

[liv]

You know, that's a really good idea! I had forgotten that Jabber existed, and if it's inter-operational with GTalk then I might as well switch over to that. The feature I quite like about GTalk is that people can send you chat messages when you're offline, and they arrive as emails, but that still involves giving Google private information that they may abuse. I'll look into Jabber, certainly.

[delight]

Wow, that dictionary word thing scares me -- both my first and last name are words in the English language (first name 'Rue,' last name is a color). And I use Google for everything. Down to my phone.

[liv]

The thing is that it's not official policy. It's just that names that look like words seem to get flagged as fake, whether that's an automated thing or over-zealous human reporters, who knows. Examples I can think of real names that have been treated as fake, presumably because they look like English words rather than typical names:
Ping
Violet Blue
Rowan Thunder
Rainyday Superstar

But it might be coincidence, there might be some other factor which has led to these suspensions.

I really think that if you're scared, the best strategy is to delete your G+ account before they can ban you. That way you can carry on using the Google services that they don't count as "social", such as your phone, in relative safety. And you should be aware that it's pretty clear that blocking people from GMail, Android etc is a bug, not intentional. So it's possible that Google may have fixed it by now, and that if your account gets suspended you will only lose G+ itself, not everything else. Intermediate cases are Reader and Picasa, which seem to be classified as social in some parts of the system but not others, so you may lose some functionality but still have the basic services available.

[ajollypyruvate]

They've also linked GMail to YouTube for automatic log in. I do not like this. I do not like this at all.

[liv]

Hell no. When I signed up for a Gmail account in 2004, I in no way consented for them to use my email address as an identity token. I'm still sore about the way they launched Buzz by converting your contact list into a pre-populated social network, broadcasting all your stuff to every customer service rep you ever happened to email. This is why I've now quarantined my Gmail address so it doesn't connect to any information about me. I think the next plan is to backup my address book and then delete all my contacts.

[ajollypyruvate]

It forced me to change my YouTube password. My YouTube account (which is of no account on its own but this is a trend) is now one step more readily hacked. And so will be any other account that I'm forced to link to GMail. It's one of the top 5 rules of computer security: Don't use the same password! And Google is forcing people to do just that and the only way to opt-out is to stop using GMail.

[daharyn]

Thanks for all the info on this thread.

I did delete my + account. I'm thinking of switching my mail over to my own domain, but I just gave out my gmail address as my "preferred" address to 50 students, so it'll have to wait until the semester is over in December, I guess.