Quitting Google

Table of Contents¶

1. Quitting Google
   1. Browser
   2. Search Engine
   3. Email and other services

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Quitting Google¶

There isn’t much doubt that Google is profiting off of your data and what has become even more apparent is that their ability to maintain the integrity of their systems against attackers(like numerous three letter agencies) is inadequate if not negligent. They make money off of your data and this is the motive behind whether or not they secure that data while exploiting it and you. The decision to move away from Google services is an obvious one to anyone beginning to increase their security posture.

Browser¶

Google maintains chrome and chromium browsers and while both are open source, we already understand Google profits off your data, if they are providing you a browser to use, well, germ-laden blankets comes to mind for some reason.

Mozilla is by no means a champion of the people but they are not Google and they are easily accessible to all users on all platforms. Many Linux distributions ship with Firefox or a fork, like Iceweasel. Another consideration is that Mozilla’s Firefox was the choice of the developers of the TOR browser bundle, for what that is worth.

Search Engine¶

Google has the best search engine without question. That’s okay the developers at StartPage will search Google for you, see their privacy policy.

Email and other services¶

Okay email, chat, collaborative documents, social networking; these services are provided to users by Google ‘free of charge,’ remember the germ-laden blankets? Well Riseup actually nails this one 1:1 – They provide email, xmpp chat, Etherpad for collaborative documents, and Crabgrass for social networking. They provide these services based upon their social contract and run on donations.