Get over it people, Google+ is the new account system for all Google products. If you don't like Google having a single account/profile system, or the fact that Google+ profiles include a "social" network product, then you best look for alternatives ASAP.
But even when the good outweighs the bad, its totally fine to stay using a service without some obligation to pretend like the negatives don't exist or never talk about them.
Does ever single person have to blog about their decision though? Every other day there is some random post that someone doesn't want to use Google services for whatever reason. I don't care. Apparently HN does because a majority of them end up making the front page.
> Get over it people, Google+ is the new account system for all Google products.
Maybe Google should finally get over the fact that they've lost this fight and that noone wants to be in a social network whose member numbers are inflated by such desperate moves (which most of us have experienced now and are well aware of).
If you follow Google's strategy, you'll see that they really are not interested in the "stream-view war" with Facebook that everyone seems so intent on their playing. Instead, Google+ is a social backbone that connects all Google products (present and future) and gives you a single Google identity across the internet.
I try to. The single thing I struggle with? Android.
Maybe Firefox OS will be interesting, iOS isn't. And .. right now I can pay for Android apps, but I'm banned from rate them, comment on them. Ignoring all the 'Do you want to be tracked to provide Better Services (tm)" stuff in that ecosystem.
Somewhat ironically, I had a Google account already (albeit only lightly used, losing Reader killed ~95% of the utility for me), but when I got my Android phone, it simply refused to link to it. I think perhaps because I didn't have GMail? To be honest the error messages were never that clear to me. So instead of linking in my "real" Google account, I had to create a new one. One I never browse with, one that has no services, one not linked to the greater anything. Instead of a lightly-but-really-used account now they just have an Android account floating in space, being virtually useless to them.
That anonymous account knows where you live, who you talk to, where you go, what you read online, ...
Linking it to your legal identity isn't hard. Data show that just two ZIP Codes (in the US) can indentify an individual with 95% accuracy: your home and workplace.
Makes me want to rightgrade to an uncontracted dumbphone and a custom-ROMed tablet. Not linked to any Google accounts.
Yeah, but that's mostly useful to law enforcement, if they were interested, and for that the mere fact of a cell phone is enough to get everything you mentioned. What Google gets of value out of this account is greatly reduced, especially as I've been buying the ad-free version of the apps. (While in theory Google could get everything you say, I believe that in practice they actually do not, say, forward all of your "Reddit is Fun" actions up to the Great Google Motherserver.)
And no, I did not say eliminated. Just greatly reduced. (Again, the moreso after shuttering Reader, although I must say that while you could learn a lot about me from my blog reading list, its utility for selling me stuff was pretty low.)
Yeah, but that's mostly useful to law enforcement, if they were interested
De-anonymization has been studied and applied by various parties, and I'm personally aware of at least one non-LEO application. I don't know that Google does or doesn't do this, though it wouldn't surprise me at all if marketing/advertising and/or other "personalization" services did. It would annoy me intensely to find that they were.
For that the mere fact of a cell phone is enough to get everything you mentioned.
A dumb phone can only report coarse location information, SMS messaging, and calls data. Frequently expiring SIMs would limit the useful duration of much of that information, though you'd need something like a self-hosted Google Voice forwarding service to be able to use the phone usefully while maintaining reasonable anonymity. It's not currently practical for most purposes.
Relying on a Free Software VOIP service based on the tablet preferentially for voice calls would further reduce exposure.
If your phone is supported, you could install CyanogenMod (it works fine without gapps installed). From there you can use f-droid for apps, but possibly Amazon App Store could be a good alternative to the Google Play morass.
>possibly Amazon App Store could be a good alternative to the Google Play morass.
Sorry but the last time I tried, Amazon App store was a resource hog. Also apps will stop working if you get signed out of the Amazon app store app. It is like they are trying to prevent one guy who they think will buy a copy of their app, get on a stranger's device, log in to the app store, download their apps, and log out and repeat it for all devices in the world.
Unless it's changed in the last couple of weeks, it's still the case that you have to remain logged in to Amazon's app store. They don't use the native account manager either, which is irritating, and the store app sometimes loses your login credentials.
It gets confusing very fast. I have a personal account, and a Google Apps account. I did work with a company that gave me a google apps account for their domain. And my youtube business page has a Google+ profile.
It is very, very difficult to figure out how to not create duplicate Google+ profiles. There's no clear way to tell Google "This is a different email address that I, a person, use. You should link it to my personal profile".
Which is a UX problem, not a "Google attempting to drive me into yet another unwanted "social" network". You don't think it's in Google's best interest that channels create Google+ Pages rather than individual Google+ profiles?
But they want each one to be tied to a single physical person. They actively dislike alts, which makes having a home profile and a work profile and $counterculture_of_choice profile or two awkward and annoying.
I have gotten over it, and I have already switched to alternatives, but maybe your message would go over a little better if it included some trace of sympathy.
What other altenratives are there that host video in HTML5 webm? Vimeo dropped the whole effort. This is really sick that Google forces thins G+ junk on Youtube users.
You know that DuckDuckGo is a US company, right? And thus subject to the same exact laws as a company like Google (and the same NSA snooping). It's true that they don't log your search queries, but if the NSA has access to the root CAs they can snoop on you anyway. And what do you think happens if the government subpoenas DuckDuckGo and tells them to log your traffic? They will of course do so. And they have a MUCH smaller legal budget with which to fight such government requests than, say, Google.
DuckDuckGo is a cool company, and I think they have a neat product. But if you're worried about the NSA, then you're kidding yourself if you think DDG is safer than any other search engine. Just use Tor and be done with it.
Yes you are right. But my switch was based more on a general "getting tired of google's bullshit" feeling that has been building over the last 2-3 years, especially my experience with google support, adwords, youtube integration, and all the crap that they know about me. At one time I was doing almost 90% of my work in google ecosystem.
Now its spread between yahoo, ddg, dropbox, etc. I feel even more strongly about Facebook. If and when a viable alternative is available, I'll be switching. Similarly with email. For the first time I'm starting to become open to paid email that is secure. I guess it has to be a non-US company.
