Re:Big brother is here, and his name is Facebook
by dredmorbius on Sunday August 13, 2017 @04:07AM
(#15002043)
If I could point to the flaw in both your and the article's arguments, it's trying to paint either as worse than the other.
Both are exceedingly bad. Both have proven exceedingly harmful (and, yes, useful, which is actually a reason why they're so perniciously harmful).
I never fell into Facebook's maw, though that's cost some inconvenience.
I've somewhat extracted myself from Google's, though still only partially:
DuckDuckGo for search. It's quite good, and I prefer bang search and actual, direct links rather than Google redirects. Though I still miss ranged date search.
OpenStreetMap for maps.
ProtonMail for email. It's not everything it could be, the client has some annoying limitations, and neither IMAPS nor POPS are supported. But at least it's not Gmail. There are other options as well.
My router blocks Google analytics, and a large set of other adtech hosts.
Despite being known as a critic of it, I use G+ heavily. With appropriate pruning and blocking, it's useful.
Both are exceedingly bad. Both have proven exceedingly harmful (and, yes, useful, which is actually a reason why they're so perniciously harmful).
I never fell into Facebook's maw, though that's cost some inconvenience.
I've somewhat extracted myself from Google's, though still only partially:
DuckDuckGo for search. It's quite good, and I prefer bang search and actual, direct links rather than Google redirects. Though I still miss ranged date search.
OpenStreetMap for maps.
ProtonMail for email. It's not everything it could be, the client has some annoying limitations, and neither IMAPS nor POPS are supported. But at least it's not Gmail. There are other options as well.
My router blocks Google analytics, and a large set of other adtech hosts.
Despite being known as a critic of it, I use G+ heavily. With appropriate pruning and blocking, it's useful.