Post: #1

After this latest arm-twist by Google to force all Youtube users to start using Google+ whether they want to or not, I have decided it's time to quit using Google products. My gmail account is also affected, as now my Youtube avatar and name are being sent to my gmail recipients.

I was one of the early adopters of Google in the 90s, helping them become the giant they are today, and this is how they thank us - fuck us in the ass!

Best way to fight back - stop using their products. They read my private emails and sell my data to third parties who can do whatever they like with it.

Google has become the most efficient spying mechanism ever created in the history of the world and I won't support that, it's extremely dangerous.

So, my plan is:

Use the Firefox browser, never Chrome.

Replace gmail with Fastmail - I am happy to pay a small annual fee to have my privacy restored.

Use the DuckDuckGo browser instead of Google - this is the BIG one. It feels weird at first and DuckDuckGo still has to rely on Google for some things like image searches but they are built around anonymity and I support that. The search engine is good.

Also, if you have to use Google, don't click the first 3 links, i.e. the sponsored links, that just puts money in the pocket of Google and takes away from the companies you like. Click the regular link just below those.

Youtube - tricky to replace this one. Best way, create a new, fake Google account and refrain from leaving messages. Or just use Youtube as an anonymous user.

Google maps - excellent product no doubt but an evil tracking system. If this is the only Google product you use, I don't see how they can correlate the data with other online activities. Or go old school - use a paper map and ask people in the streets for directions. It's worked for thousands of years! Or use a different map service to Google maps, and take a photo of it on your phone before you leave home. New tech/Old Skool!

If you guys know any better products than the ones I suggested, please add them here. I want a great online experience but I refuse to sell my privacy to get it.

Post: #2

You have the gist: make a fake email account. You probably should have one(or more) of those anyways.

You might want to mention something about adblock and adblock plus.

Post: #3

I think this is a good idea and a great thread topic to discuss. I too felt a certain...Pang of uncertainty when I realized everyone on Youtube now has no anonymity.

I'm no fan of the cesspool of human thoughts that is the Youtube comments section, but Google is starting to overreach it's level of control I am comfortable with. I use Chrome and love it, and have had a Gmail account for years. I use Google Docs and love it too but now I'm starting to think having everything centrally controlled and located with one company--especially now that we know we are being spied on with 100% certainty--may not be in our personal best interests for the sake of privacy.

My only issue is I don't know what the best replacements are. Is Duck Duck Go really the best search engine to use in lieu of Google? Firefox is a good browser, that I know from past use. If people could add in their other recommendations for Google/Apple replacements that would be great.

These guys used to be the under dogs and now they're the government overlord lapdogs fucking us all in the ass.

Googlemaps is something I rely on way too much. I almost never know where to get anywhere anymore. I just put it into Googlemaps on my phone and let it direct me step-by-step. This reliance means there are places I've been a dozen times yet do not know how to get there by heart or which roadways.

This opens up a whole other macro-topic of weening ourselves away from reliance on technology as a whole. The pendulum tends to swing back the other way with extreme ebb and flow in trends. My car doesn't even have a road map in it in case my phone is lost or something. I feel like a child. Something to think on...

EDIT: I was just researching alternatives to Gmail when I found this article:

Quote:Finding a secure service may be even harder. Last week, Lavabit's owner shut down his email service, saying: "I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations." Silent Circle promptly followed suit, saying: "We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now."

Post: #4

Guys, you were already tracked, a lot. The G+ on youtube thing is just a thing to promote G+ and integrate all google products under one consistent user experience. If you had a gmail account, general google account or a g+ account before these changes and it was logged in ANYWHERE in the same browser, they've linked all of them together for quite a long time.

Facebook does a lot of passive tracking too. Try starting a new facebook account for example and become friends with someone in another country with completely different social circles. Be amazed as your virgin facebook account is basically suggested half your friends list from your old facebook account.

Anyway, I suggest using something like incognito filter. It will open websites with a certain url pattern, like youtube, gmail, google, whatever in incognito mode all the time. So you'll never forget to log out of something when you've logged in once with a google account elsewhere. I'm sure firefox has it something similar.

Post: #5

https://prism-break.org/‎

Everything you'll ever need is on this page; even the maps

Post: #6

(11-18-2013 05:44 AM)MeshTryOut Wrote:  https://prism-break.org/‎

Everything you'll ever need is on this page; even the maps

Perfect! Thanks for the link.

Post: #7

The link is dead for me. a 404 error.

Post: #8

Even if you try to keep a low profile, companies have a sneaky way around this. Ever open an app that asks for permission to access your contacts? Even if you say no, how many of your friends say no? This way they can map out your network anyway.

Post: #9

Google has been heavily censoring searches. It's always done this by pushing less favorable sites to the back pages beyond "1" and "2" but now they don't even show up, even with open content settings. Try to compare a topic on Yahoo for a taboo subject and compare the results .. Yahoo is hardly better but at least they don't heavily censor.

Post: #10

(11-18-2013 05:44 AM)MeshTryOut Wrote:  https://prism-break.org/‎

Everything you'll ever need is on this page; even the maps

Getting a broken link.

Post: #11

(11-18-2013 07:51 AM)kbell Wrote:  The link is dead for me. a 404 error.

https://prism-break.org/

Try that one. The original link added several characters on the end that need to be removed.

Post: #12

I was Googling "explosives," "security clearance", and "truck driver" *all at once the other day. NSA computer probably had a meltdown.



*Was looking for a specific job in North Dakota.

Post: #13

Quote:After this latest arm-twist by Google to force all Youtube users to start using Google+ whether they want to or not, I have decided it's time to quit using Google products. My gmail account is also affected, as now my Youtube avatar and name are being sent to my gmail recipients.

That shit pissed me off. I refuse to use Google+. It's just beat.
And I refuse to be forced into it.

You can kill the account from your e-mail settings. Top Right of your e-mail.

Post: #14

Yep.

I see so many people who run Youtube "channels" (not something I do or care about) who are totally screwed by this. It's how they make their money! They have several profiles for different interests. Makes sense.

A name like "movieguy" for movie reviews and then another like topgamer" for PC game reviews. But Google wants everyone to have one, single, unifying online personality containing all of their interests under 1 account.

Only reason? Perfect profiling of the individual and their interests - i.e. what products can be sold to them and fuck the consequences of doing that to the users.

Post: #15

(11-18-2013 07:51 AM)kbell Wrote:  The link is dead for me. a 404 error.

That means the NSA is already on to you and is censoring your internet.

RUN!!!

Post: #16

(11-18-2013 12:26 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(11-18-2013 07:51 AM)kbell Wrote:  The link is dead for me. a 404 error.

That means the NSA is already on to you and is censoring your internet.

RUN!!!

Nah it's just a broken link due to the extra characters.

This isn't a joke. The NSA has a lot more power than you think.

Prism is not to be taken lightly.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/interac...ns-decoded

Also, to be truly safe, you have to use Linux. Mac and Windows aren't safe information-wise.

Post: #17

Google has been trying to take over the world for a while now.

They allowed that movie "The Internship" to be filmed on their main campus to show the world how amazing and laid-back the company is, but it has nothing to do with their ultimate goal.

If you have android, they require a gmail account to download any app. Iphone will require an Apple ID or Itunes. Both companies have intentionally made it impossible to just normally download an app without some sign-in process.

Post: #18

This link worked for me https://prism-break.org/ however do a search on it, I came across this

http://www.alexanderhanff.com/prism-brea...misleading

Post: #19

(11-18-2013 12:41 PM)la_mode Wrote:  Google has been trying to take over the world for a while now.

They allowed that movie "The Internship" to be filmed on their main campus to show the world how amazing and laid-back the company is, but it has nothing to do with their ultimate goal.

If you have android, they require a gmail account to download any app. Iphone will require an Apple ID or Itunes. Both companies have intentionally made it impossible to just normally download an app without some sign-in process.

Not to derail but FedEx is like that too. I got a delivery notice on my door. No sender info. I was forced to create a FedEx account just to have them hold the package. Fucking annoying.

Post: #20

(11-18-2013 12:33 PM)NY Digital Wrote:  

(11-18-2013 12:26 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(11-18-2013 07:51 AM)kbell Wrote:  The link is dead for me. a 404 error.

That means the NSA is already on to you and is censoring your internet.

RUN!!!

Nah it's just a broken link due to the extra characters.

This isn't a joke. The NSA has a lot more power than you think.

Prism is not to be taken lightly.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/interac...ns-decoded

Also, to be truly safe, you have to use Linux. Mac and Windows aren't safe information-wise.

I was just joking, sorry if I came across as trying to make fun of you. I know it's a serious issue.

That said, after living on Linux for half a year, I said "fuck it" and decided to go back to Windows. While Linux the OS is very cool, I found most of its programs (either native or ported) to be very subpar and behaving like something out of late 20th century. As much as I yearn to say otherwise, I'm not surprised that its market share is still only 1%.

My rationale for using Windows is that Windows can be busted in a targeted way, if someone is specifically looking for you and uses the famous NSA backdoor. But all other privacy tools - general privacy, such as avoiding cookies and tracking, proxy tools, web filters, etc... they all work a lot better than on Linux, at least in my experience.

Post: #21

Yeah I tried Linux once but all that red hat, yellow penguin stuff really confused me. I don't have much patience!

I have an Android device - used to have an iPhone. Left Apple (for the third time, coz I hate their similar attitude to customers, aka, we know best)

Who the fuck now? Maybe this will be Blackberry's return to strength - that should be their whole campaign:


We are NOT Google.

We are NOT Apple.

You decide.

Fuck I'd run out and buy one straight away!

Post: #22

problem with Linux is that it is not user friendly. apt sudos get and other shit you have to do to install a plugin is crazy and dries people away.

Post: #23

@Wreckingball:
check out Linuxmint or Ubuntu, VERY user friendly and stable as rock.

I like duckduckGo except its clumsy name

and yes...Google is invasive as shit these days...

Post: #24

I like duckduckGo except its clumsy name

And retardedly bad duck graphic - you would think they could have come up with a better name and logo to begin with, now they are stuck with that shit!

Post: #25

Haven't used a Youtube account since Google acquired it. Don't really seem to need one anyways. Apart from the annoying flagged videos which I can't watch, does the job pretty well for me.