Google has become omnipresent in our lives. Everything is connected to their services in one way or another and for the sake of convenience, everything is served to us on a silver plate. But what do we trade off by living like that?
Don’t be evil
Google has grown from one simple search engine to planetary corporation that has diversified their web business to the extreme. Their slogan “Don’t be evil” was something everyone wanted to hear and to believe in, especially when Microsoft was embodiment of evil at that time. They still are, don’t get me wrong, but that is another topic.
I remember the time when we were all so excited when Google introduced Gmail. At that time, their search engine was best one around and everyone wanted to try out their next great service – Gmail. It wasn’t easy to get invitation to try it out, but I managed somehow and now I am still using Gmail on some of my domains. Gmail offered everything for free, even services other providers charged for. There was no ads, we could use POP3/IMAP access… all was great and convenient. I got hooked.
Then they introduced free Google apps for business with 50 email accounts per domain, Google docs, Google drive, Google analytics, Google adwords, Google maps, they bought YouTube and many other prospective companies. Google provided everything I really needed to support my web design business.
My clients now had many free services that helped them grow their business. They even cut their regular expenses because there was no need for them to pay for email providers and Microsoft office suites. That is the time they got hooked on Google.
At that time no one thought that Google’s free can be a problem. Problem is that most of you still don’t see it.
So, what’s wrong?
Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it
-- John Emerich
Google, like any other company, was created primarily to make profit and their main source of income is through selling of ads. At first, their simple ads could be found only in search results, but they weren’t good enough for expanding company like Google. They needed to be more focused, better targeted and that was impossible without much better demographic data.
Now all of their services gather that information - they track your every search query, videos you watched or liked, sites you have visited, your geographical location history... EVERYTHING! You don’t even need to have Google account, because they can track you even if you interact with someone who is connected to them. If someone has Google analytics installed on their site – they collect data about you. If you send mail to someone who is using Gmail – they can collect data about you as well. You wouldn’t believe how simple that is.
Now ads are everywhere!
Does it end here? Of course not!
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
-- William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham
It was all innocent at the start, but today, it is absolutely scary and ruins the meaning of privacy and freedom. With mobile devices that constantly run Google services in background, with their unlimited access to microphone, camera, GPS… it becomes even scarier.
Face it, you have left so much data on the internet, they can and they are making a psychological profile on you. Based on sites you visit, videos you watch, things you search for, it is quite easy to do all of that.
Would you be comfortable if government got their hands on your data? Edward Snowden revealed that it already happened.
Are you comfortable with fact that Google representatives are meeting with U.S. White house staff every week on regular basis? What could possibly an outcome of those meetings? How about censorship?
Video: The Revolution Will Not Be YouTubed
In this video you can clearly see that Google is cutting profit from ads to these alternative news publishers. In effect, they lose funding for their investigative journalism and their videos are pulled from suggestions.
Google’s ministry of truth
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."
-- 1984, George Orwell
Seems like Orwell was right about our future and Google will make sure that happens. With their new “Truth algorithm” sites in search results will be ranked on truthfulness and not based on their popularity. In one way, that can seem like a good thing, but think about the possibilities and tampering of those results. When you take into account their close ties with US regime and latest censorships, alarm about them is louder than ever.
We can clearly see how Google transitioned from great and promising company to evil big-brother:
Great idea and even better execution of that idea -> Greed through ad selling -> Big data for big brother -> Internet censorship -> Google’s ministry of truth
Abandon ship!
This is the only way to fight against it – cut all ties you have with Google. Internet is full of great startups and companies that will offer services that are on par with those from Google, or possibly even better. On my part, I will transition to independent services: DuckDuckGO instead of Google search, Piwik Analytics instead of Google analytics, Vimeo instead of YouTube, Yandex or Zoho mail instead of Gmail, Mega instead of Google drive, Firefox instead of Chrome.
I will also remove all links to other Google services, because I don’t want my visitors to be tracked by them as well. I suggest you do the same.
Share this article with your friends, let’s all take back our power on the Internet!
Author
Vladimir Jovanović
Web designer, Front-end developer and most importantly - awake
Twitter | Steem
Having lectured for Google I would have to beg to differ. They give more out for free than any other major company twice their size and ask nothing in return. If you know how to use the tools they provide free of charge, you have access to everything from free phone service and e-mail to satellite imagery and street view. All of which they do not charge you a dime for and even grant free cloud storage, hangouts for free video conferencing (unlike Microsoft's newly acquired Skype), and the list goes on. They have a neutral carbon footprint, but I'll digress from my rant before I become a Google spokes-model.
If you hate Google you're entitled to your opinion but you'll be hard pressed to find a company that charges advertisers only to give a portion of those proceeds back to the online community, not for the press or publicity but because it's the right thing to do. Most people have no idea what they've given back for free because they don't do it as a publicity stunt so many of their charitable ventures go completely unnoticed.
When was the last time Microsoft or Apple gave you a free anything (other than a headache)???
We even donated all the proceeds from the conference I lectured at to fund local educational programs, all lecturers were from unpaid volunteers such as myself, and we even donated all the food left over from the caterer to a local Women's Shelter so as to waste nothing and give back everything.
Pfffttt... No one makes people use Google, they do it by choice. Bing couldn't even grab but a small fraction of their market share by paying users to use it. I'm not trying to troll you here, I may have a very biased viewpoint having actually worked with Google before on several occasions so I'm sorry if it comes off sounding that way.
People are always entitled to their own opinion and free access to public libraries if they choose to go that route. Such is their right and far be it from me to deny them that... After all, one can always fall back on Yahoo if all else fails and the library is closed.
You fail to see what is going on behind "free" services. No one said that Microsoft is good or that they do not track you. They are even worse with their Windows 10 spyware OS.
Problem is that you haven't done your homework on Google's regular meetings with US regime, censorship, manipulation of search results, population profiling etc.
I guess you haven't even read the article, but you stopped somewhere in the middle and then started to defend Google because you worked for them. That's not good.
If most of the people know the full truth and are given the choice to use something for free in exchange for lack of privacy OR to pay for something that cannot spy on you, what do you think they would choose? Judging by how world behaves today, I am afraid of the answer.
Actually I've done more than my fair share of "homework" so to speak. I'm pretty sure donating free food isn't an ulterior motive meant to support some secret Cabal or Regime it was simply a decision we made to feed hungry people rather than throw it away. Google very much meets with the US government regularly, as does Microsoft and Apple.
All of which have told the US Govt. to stop dictating and leave them alone. Google refused to turn over documents to the NSA even though they maintain their servers. Apple refused to unlock an iPhone for the FBI, and Microsoft? Well, they're Microsoft and they when told by a judge they would be fined in court for stalling the proceedings a whopping 1 million dollars a day, they responded "Respectfully your honor we'll pre-pay for 30 days in advance."
What country do you live in because I'm guessing it's not here in the US. $20 says you're not even running Linux right now while preaching the evils of a company you have never set foot in but run their OS anyway. FYI Steemit is free to use and even pays you too, but I doubt they're also part of some "Great Conspiracy." This Orwellian 1984, Big Brother BS, lets all go be Anarchists and burn all the Evil Corps to the ground BS on here is getting old real fast.
Tell me to go do my homework on a company I have worked with before first hand and on more than one occasion... Please... I did enough homework while getting my college degree.
What's your level of education?
I will make a parallel with your situation and then point out the big difference between us.
I used to work for a bank few years ago. They also donated food and social help during devastating floods. All of us who were employed there also gave our share to help out those people in need. I have donated 10% of my monthly salary to help out, but I didn't want to donate money, because who know where will it end up (think od Haiti and Clinton foundation). Instead I bought physical goods and distributed it.
You know what happened after? I worked in marketing and I heard bosses discussing how to exploit this situation. First thing bank did after that disaster is to offer to all of those people loans. Because of the tragic event that happened, those people couldn't repay that loans. You can guess what happened after.
I quit as soon as I saw what is going in, because I couldn't stand to work for evil. I learned the hard way what big corporations do.
Where is the difference between two of us? I saw what is happening and I took action - I refused to be a part of that evil machine. You on the other hand are still defending the evil machine because you think that charity can mask all the Orwellian stuff in the background.
I am educated, college degree as well. But I am also awake and because of my line of work, I know how to make a difference between lies, propaganda and truth.
Don't try to label me because of my origin, age, education... Try to respond with arguments if you have any, otherwise you are not worthy to be debated with.
You're equating Google, a search engine based company to a bank that practiced predatory lending? I'm pretty sure this would be a tangent because it's far from a parallel.
If distributing an "Evil Corporation's" food to the needy after giving a free lecture to broke college students is being part of the problem, then I will gladly be a problematic individual with every opportunity that arises. No loans were involved and the grant we received to fund the charity event was more than we needed, so we in turn donated the rest to other local charities with Google's blessing.
I fail to see the parallel between charitably donating my time and Google's money in relation to a bank's practice of predatory lending to post disaster victims.
No labels here, just the facts...
I very much read the article, I just disagree with it. To clarify again, I was never a paid worker at Google. I was asked to volunteer as a guest lecturer and received nothing for my time other than the satisfaction of teaching basic skills to a room full of up and coming Android developers.
I defended Google based on merit, not company bias because they paid my bills. They didn't even pay for my hotel or travel time. As I clearly stated I was strictly an "unpaid volunteer" who lectured to a bunch of undergraduate students because everyone deserves free education. There was not a single ulterior motive for my appearance and my agreement to speak at the conference.
I just complimented you when I saw one of your other answers (bank). I couldn't reply to since steemit only permits few levels of replies.
It seems that I was expecting that you will stop acting like a troll, but what can a man do. There is a glimmer of hope when it comes to you, because you like to help other people, but you have a long road ahead of you before you see what's going on.
This conversation is pointless and this is where I leave you to believe what you want.
All best.
I shall do the same as it appears we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
For what it's worth you seem quite intelligent and honestly am I'm sorry if I upset you and derailed your thread.
I wish you the best as well.
Or you could always just edit your comment rather than reply to mine so the thread turns into me replying to myself like this... If someone doesn't know how to turn off location based services, install custom firmware/software, or scrub their devices of malware I would blame the user for failure to do their due diligence. Paid software that doesn't spy on you? I prefer open source so I can see the code before trusting it but then again what would a CompSci major with a list of credentials know about that kind of thing anyway? Oh yeah, there's that homework thing again that springs to mind.
That is commendable, I really mean it.
My argument is that Google, like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, all have ulterior agenda that is hidden from public. I don't mean regular business secrets, I mean exactly what I wrote above. Since I am in the business of web development and programming, I know how easy is to implement everything I wrote about, but because of my background in marketing and design I also know how it can be easily mixed with propaganda and manipulation.
When it comes to OS I am using, I have 2 installed on my PC. Ubuntu and Windows. Windows is unfortunately required for my line of work, because there aren't good alternatives for Design programs. Who knows, maybe I force myself one of these days to design on Linux and then write about my experience.
Because I am aware that Windows is spyware, I have learned to use Firewalls and some other alternative hacks to prevent communication with Microsoft servers. I am vigilant about my privacy and I know that it is constantly under attack with these "free" services we once thought will liberate us.
If you want to educate people, like I see you do, explore alternatives to mainstream google services. You will see that there are plenty of good choices.
I will leave you with this thought: "If you throw a frog into a boiling water, it will immediately jump out, but if you put it in water and heat it slowly, frog will die because it will end up cooked".
Good article. Their free services are not just for our benefit. Just like socialism to communism, it's all about control. It's funny how so many people that think of themselves as highly educated have just been brainwashed into the system so heavily that they fail to realize what is going on in the world around them.
Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Great post! very well written and enlightening ! For someone like myself who thinks Human Equal Rights is very important. All you really needed to say is that google is very much in favor of racism and GENOCIDE! I say this ofcourse because google is very much so Zionist and if that wasn't enough they censor their YouTube comments section that disagrees with their genocide!
Look forward to more of your content... Cheers
Thank you! This means a lot to me, especially because English is not my native tongue and writing of articles like this one takes more time than usual.
Since I am in web development business, it is easier for me to see what is going on behind the curtains. Technology can be great and can do a lot of good, but unfortunately, minds of the ones who are using it can be corrupted and results will lead us to totalitarian worldwide dictatorship.
Take this for example - there is a great matchmaking web site called okcupid. They do a lot of good to many people with their services. Their matchmaking algorithm is one of the best in the world. Heck, I met my future wife there by chance, just because I wanted to learn how that matchmaking algorithm works. Their psychological profiling is extremely accurate and it is just based on the answers you provide to them. If you provide more answers, you get better precision.
Now imagine if you will if those "answers" are your search queries and browsing history. Google has implemented that with 100% certainty. Now imagine what kind and level of manipulation can come out of that. We see that already with that criminal Hillary... A lot of people see this, report on this and write about this. Big thumbs up to @wearechange, @corbettreport and @dollarvigilante for leading the wake up call.
This article is just my small contribution to their efforts.
excellent! I am also fan of the three you mentioned but must admit that I am a HUGE FANBOY of James Corbett and believe me, I am not fanboy of many! Keep it up.. you might become the next Corbettreport :)
Thank you for your kind words :)
Use Startpage, best alternative!
Already using DuckDuckGO especially because of this:
StartPage has one problem:
Have a look at the LinkNYC spy stations talk from HOPE XI. Google is involved in it to collect even more data without your permission. http://livestream.com/internetsociety/hopeconf/videos/130816888
I have glanced over it and it is as I have suspected. If you want to be somewhat safe over wifi, always use VPN.
http://tunnelbear.com is good solution.
i agree this also applies to the other big tech corporate companies as well. everyone uses google for almost everything that involves on their daily lives, is there any other alternatives to use that are like google, yahoo ext.?
I am using http://duckduckgo.com for more than a year now. They are like Google from their glory, ad-free days. Give it a try.