It took 4 months to cut the tentacles away, but on 15 OCT I deleted my Google acct. For over 15 yrs I naively trusted... while they collected every imaginable piece of personal information about me. I gladly used the "free" services (gmail, youtube, voice, drive, maps). The convenience was wonderful but I was selling my soul... then slowly realized I had given up my rights. I assume my data is still on their servers(how long?) but starting 15 OCT I am reclaiming my right to privacy & freedom.
@mat and what are your alternatives?
@SeanGeil @mat This is definitely a great list. My only remaining hooks into G are Gmail (which at this point, is just a secondary or maybe even tertiary email account now that I use #Tutanota), Photos, and YouTube for how-to videos.
It felt really liberating deleting all of my Facebook accounts earlier this year, so I do know how good this can feel. Congrats
@rd @SeanGeil Thank you for asking. It was migrating to the alternatives that took 4 months. I am honored to answer any questions...
Password mgr: yapet
Drive/Photos: ownCloud
Hangouts/Duo: matrix-synapse
Search engine: DuckDuckGo, Swisscows, MetaGer, Searx
Chrome: Tor, Firefox
Maps: OsmAnd, Qwart
Fonts: Font Squirrel
Gmail/calendar/contacts: mailbox.org
Voice: ooma.com
Analytics: goaccess.io
News:tt-rss.org
Youtube: LBRY
Youtube music: my mp3 library
Domains: namecheap.com, freedns.afraid.org