So not a very good past weekend for internet privacy:
Eric Schmidt of Alphabet/Google fame says that he thinks in 10-15 years there will be two ‘internets’, the U.S. leading one and China the other. And there’s NO WAY China’s version will be as free from censorship as most of the rest of the world’s is.
China shuts down more than 4,000 websites and online accounts in a three-month campaign against “harmful” online information. Sounds like most of it was smutty sites, but also religious ones and those ‘spreading rumors’.
And Google also makes the news, yet again, over privacy concerns.
Wow, this on top of the Dragonfly debacle. So now with the latest release of Chrome will start making you log in with your Google account when you use the browser. Though they say your browser data stays local, there’s no guarantee it’s even true, or maybe true now but for how long. I agree with these two security guys assessment, this is a retarded change for Google to make and there are no good arguments for it.
The past few days I’ve been thinking a lot more about my continuing use of Google, which is not quite as radical as what I wrote about in my last post about what it would take to leave Google totally. I know I’m no one of ‘interest’ to them, and my data is really just a drop in their digital data ocean… but how much do I want Google to know about me, really? How much of my daily life do I want them to track? And it’s not just them, as a private company; I have NO doubts that they will (or do) bend over backwards when the NSA/CIA/FBI/etc knocks on their door requesting specific user information but that’s a whole ‘nother matter (trying to keep Big Brother out of anything on the internet is a fool’s errand). And just so this is written out here, I’m not trying to hide anything nefarious… I just believe that no one entity should have all data about everything one does. Here’s an example: Do I care that pictures of my house or my car (ala Maps street view, Zillow, etc) or my family (ala FB, my own website, etc) are available on the internet? No. Would I care if there were pictures on the internet of me in the shower, or telephotos of my family taken at night through the windows our living room? Absolutely. See, there really IS a thing about needing privacy and secrecy. Not ALL things should be recorded. I am of the feeling that Google (now that they are aren’t trying to not be evil hyuck) deep down believes in the tagline from that failure of a movie, The Circle: “Knowing is good. Knowing everything is better.” Oh, sorry, that’s supposed to be Facebook.
Years ago, as Google was burgeoning and starting their empire-building (like taking over Youtube, trotting out Google+, Google Voice, Google Drive, yada yada), I did not want to put all my eggs in one basket. I decided back then to use multiple Google accounts for the various Google services just for the sake of privacy, to make sure (at least as well as I could!) that the G would not have a complete profile of me (I can’t even imagine how much Google knows about any individual who uses a single Google account login for everything!). But I do have a certain main personal account that I’ve used for several services over the years (Gmail, Photos, Voice, Keep, Android phone, etc, not to mention using that specific gmail for other internet services like my Amazon account and FB and others) and this is the one I’m mainly thinking all this about right now, as my Google profile… what they would consider as me. And that has me considering what it would take to switch from that account to a new Google Shadow Profile… a new blank-slate account that would begin to hold my data, but would not be associated to my personal self. If it’s a shadow account, it could even be possibly used for multiple G services too, those that didn’t contain personally identifiable information.
But ugh, is this even possible?? Is there a way to ‘turn off the siphon’ of data that flows into and out of an old and well-used Google account? A way to create a kind of shadow persona, of sorts, out of thin air to take on the roll of my unself. To a rather pessimistic and depressing point, though, at this point in the game is it even worth it to try to do this? Once someone is ‘known’ in the Google pool, can that even be reversed?
Lots to think about. Guess a good place to start is to first try making a list for where ALL the data points are being sourced and recorded. Then to try to come up with alternatives that stop filling my real-name data bucket and start forming the new shadow self.
2018.09.27 Update: Timely article by Lifehacker, Ditch Gmail With These Alternatives. Reading a few comments, I’m definitely not alone in wanting to move off of Google/Gmail but also feeling the angst of having those accounts around for so many years now.