The big kicker for me is that I want my kids to have access to Google search,YT kids etc. so they learn how to use apps like this correctly but with (imperfect) guard rails in place that I can adjust. As much as I myself try to keep a solid distance away from this “you/your data is the product” part of the web, it would be irresponsible for me to not allow my kids the chance to learn to use & learn them so as such, I do have an Google/gmail credentials so I can use them and be there with my kids as they explore the internet.
Again, has their use of your data caused you any harm? All i can see is that I get ads more relevant to what i'm interested in. Never had my CC data, identity, SSN, or anything important really stolen or even mildly abused. I don't think anyone has really.
When I switched to Mac, I didn’t use Chrome because Safari lets me turn off distractions like ads and those annoying chat bots on some websites. Chrome doesn’t have that feature.
Same. My TV time is divided between my local video library and YouTube.
I’m coming in way late but I’m a huge privacy fan particularly of my own information and the value of it to me and the enormous amount of money it’s worth to people who are collecting it nefariously or with shady tactics at the minimum and corrupt global government systems supporting their racketeering schemes. I have tried to flat out fire some companies I don’t want to support or help build a world where my personal business is their product but they do make it difficult because they are behind the scenes everywhere regardless.
I have 3 google accounts and they are all in litigation for security breaches for not honoring user privacy settings. Verizon is also in one now or just got out, I have had my information exposed all over the place because of these breaches and also from my bank and my medical records online. It’s a huge hassle every time, they get a slap on the wrist, lawyers get a ton of money, I get a check for less than $30 and free credit monitoring for a year but my info is still there and I get spam calls and emails by the dozens daily DAILY!
Good to know! I have learned that everything seems to lead back eventually to either google or amazon now regardless of what we do unless it’s with carbon paper or mimeograph machines (I’m old). Every time I’ve gone down the browser and search engine rabbit holes I’ve come up looking like I was in Normandy (not that old). I have been using Safari and DDG recently with some success but it’s not the same and DDG will occasionally revert to ridiculous and completely irrelevant results that look like they were thrown up on the page from across the room by several people doing different things. It’s a process. I don’t think I’ve looked at Ladybird though! I’m going to have to see what that’s about for browsing!! Every time I go to the App Store and look at the recent reviews it seems that the latest 100 or so are angry people who are going back to whatever because of the last update. That’s definitely a trend. Maybe it’s something I should try to ignore and look into elsewhere?
I'm sure you're doing fine. I noticed you hadn't mentioned any actual harm. According to some prosecuting attorney, they violated the 500-page policy agreement in some way. At most you had to change a password. Is that a "huge hassle"?
Amazon has been hard to stop thought I did quit for about a year. However, they have good movies and some decent shows ie Fallout which made me subscribe in the first place. And they had NBA games/finals too! I share that with my dad so he can watch their amazon exclusive games.
DuckDuckGo for most of my search. DuckDuckGo and Firefox for my Windows browser. Firefox everywhere. I like DuckDuckGo on iOS (yes, WebKit underneath) because I like the tab management better than Safari; also use Safari for certain things that work better there. The DuckDuckGo browser for Windows works better than Chrome and/or Edge. On MacOS I still prefer Firefox, but also use DuckDuckGo browser sometimes.
