I’m listening to the Bookworms podcast episode on Digital Minimalism. @Mikeschmitz mentions his prohibition against using Google. I am probably one of the people who has always looked at Google (especially Gmail) as a service in which I am willing to trade a little privacy in exchange for an otherwise excellent service. Moreover, we use Google Suite at work and we are invested in Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, etc.
What is the current thinking when it comes to Google in 2019? Is it time to look at finding another service? What about Google Suite in a work environment…how do you feel about using Google Suite?
If you have transitioned away from Google/Gmail, what are you using today? What about Office 365 and Outlook.com for email?
Thanks for the link to that discussion. That is helpful.
Some conclusions:
Google Suite is private. No worries. Correct?
Free apps like Spark Mail bring their own privacy concerns.
One can immediately improve their online security by eliminating all use of Google and Facebook. Does this include the Chrome browser?
Here is where I struggle: I think it is a safe assumption that unless you want to become Amish, you cannot maintain privacy in the modern world. If you are connected in any way, you are probably being tracked in some way.
If that is true, then is privacy worth the fight or is it a losing battle?
I have taken very similar steps, however, we do use G-Suite but I use Brave, DDG, and deactivated my FB account. I no longer use Twitter or LinkedIn as I find little value in them compared to the time required and the privacy related issues. I also use VPN when in public.
Why change?
A specially the paid version of G-Mail (G-suite) is a great service. If you are really concerned about privacy I highly recommend Protonmail.
I don’t see how this helps… All of my outgoing email goes to my mail providers SMTP server and incoming mail comes from its IMAP server. There isn’t much to be learned from those interactions. Am I missing something here?
Full disclosure, I use Gmail (both paid and free). But I try not to use the Google search engine. I use DuckDuckGo whenever I can and really don’t lose much sleep about the rest.
I started using Gmail around 2005, and before my retirement last year moved my company’s email from an in-house server to GSuite. Google, IMO, is probably as secure as any email/cloud storage provider. They (and Dropbox) have the fastest, most reliable, syncing cloud storage I have used. But, AFAIK, Google has never had a massive breach like Dropbox.
We evaluated Office 365, and they offer an excellent product. But we decided GSuite was a better solution for our company. Outlook.com isn’t the same as Microsoft’s commercial O365 product. I’ve had a free account there since the Hotmail days and consider it a spam magnet.
Google has been hosting email for 2 of my private domains for over 10 years and the service has been rock solid. Any concerns I have with using Google are the same ones I would have using any cloud based service.
Doesn’t really work that way. If you’re connecting to gmail.com, it’s true that your ISP will know that, but that is all. Traffic to your browser or mail client is still encrypted, your ISP isn’t decrypting your traffic to inspect web email. Also, if using a VPN, you’re really just trading service providers. The VPN provider could do exactly what your ISP is, maybe even worse. Furthermore, do we really even know who these VPN providers are? Wired just did an in depth look and some of what they reported was pretty surprising. Proceed with caution…
The Brave browser also supports Tor windows.
You can read more about the technology on their website.
You could think of it like a double-blind study, if you’re familiar.
My mobile carrier sells my location. The United States Postal Service sells my physical address. Someone sold my birthdate, because AARP definitely knew when I turned 50.
The value of my house is public. Almost every vendor I deal with sells what I buy, how much I buy, and when I bought it. So does my credit card company. And all that data goes to the credit bureaus who sell it to companies like Facebook, who uses it to build a profile on me.
I’ve never had a FB account, but I was screwed the first time a FB user uploaded my picture and name. After that “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” only if I’m not in the background of some strangers photo that gets uploaded to the web.
Everything I do on the internet is known to someone. If it is of commercial value, it is for sale. If it isn’t it is stored in case it might become valuable some day.
I do my best to protect my SSN, medical, and financial records. And then hope that a credit bureau, or some local, state, or federal agency doesn’t dump everything about my life on the web - too often.
