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2012-07-10 08:41:35
By Kate Dailey BBC News Magazine
Google's reach spreads far across the web. But is it possible to go online
without being noticed by the search giant? Three computer professionals try to
part ways with Google.
Tom Henderson spends what he describes as "way too much" time online.
The managing director for Extreme Labs, a technology company in Bloomington,
Indiana, Henderson says he's often up late in the evening doing work for
clients - and having fun exploring the far reaches of the internet.
But when Google announced earlier this year that it would be streamlining the
privacy agreements for all of its products - including YouTube, Blogger and
Gmail - Henderson decided to find a way to stay online without patronising
Google.
The policy was criticised by EU officials for being too invasive.
"At that point I had to make a decision," says Henderson. "Do I like the terms
of service and am I willing to abide by it to use Google's products? And the
answer in both cases was no."
So Henderson decided to quit Google for good. He wrote a manifesto for IT World
called How I Divorced Google and set about initiating the break-up.
Four months later, he's still living a mostly Google-free existence.
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
We don't sell our users' personal information. It's simply not how we operate
Google spokesperson
Google's terms of service state that the information it collects is used
primarily to make the browsing experience better.
The firm also promises to share that information only in limited circumstances,
unless users give consent.
But Henderson wasn't satisfied that the policy could be enforced, and didn't
feel confident that the sheer amount of information Google can collect wouldn't
fall into the wrong hands.
"Google isn't subject to an audit of what those practices are," he says.
"They're not telling whether they sell that info to insurance companies or
people who want to market to you or people who don't like you at all."
So rather than hope for the best, he started to live his life without Google.
Though he still misses YouTube, he asked his son, a musician, to cross-post his
music videos on Vimeo. He uses MapQuest for directions. And instead of
"Googling," he now uses a platform called Duck Duck Go, a search engine
designed to protect privacy.
'Mission impossible'
Henderson isn't the first person to try to abandon Google products out of
privacy fears. But he's stuck with it longer than most.
"After a month, I decided it was mission impossible," says Benjamin Ellis, a
technologist living in Camberley, Surrey.
In 2009, he tried to give up Google after a friend "held up his Google-branded
phone to take a picture that will probably end up on a Google-powered photo
site, indexed by Google search-bots, published on Google-powered blogs, with
Google-powered ads, viewed in Google-built web browsers, maybe even on a
Google-built operating system".
"I realised pretty quickly that you had to go to extreme lengths to avoid
interaction with Google," he says.
He found that his contact with Google went well beyond the active choices of
viewing videos on YouTube or using the search engine.
Continue reading the main story
Henderson's seven-day plan
Day 1: Take inventory
Day 2: Delete cookies
Day 3: Redirect host files
Day 4: Install tracking blocker
Day 5: Mobile phone maintenance
Day 6: Find replacements
Day 7: Maintenance and reflection
Read more about it at IT World
Google planted tracking cookies when he visited sites that used Google's
AdSense, which used his personal preferences to tailor ads to his liking.
Ellis was also being exposed to cookies via Google SafeBrowsing, a product that
keeps tabs on sites known to run malware. That program is now used on Safari
and Firefox web browsers as well as Google's Chrome browser.
"It was hard to find any that didn't use either of those. It's a massive chunk
of the internet," he said.
(Henderson, for his part, uses blockers that prevent Google from tracking his
browsing).
Ellis says he's back to using Google products, but has become more careful
about his browser's privacy settings and the type of programs that he agrees to
give data to. Though the UK has stricter online privacy laws than the US, Ellis
is still proactive about his internet footprint.
"I have much stricter settings on my cookies now," he says. "I'm a bit more
conscious."
Embracing a Google lifestyle
Not everyone who tries to walk away from Google ends up wary.
Take Joe Wilcox, the editor of BetaNews.com, a technology news site. In 2011,
he too was worried about privacy, and tried to shun Google for at least a week.
"It went so badly that I went the other way. Now I'm a total Google geek," he
says.
Wilcox says that Google's size and scope has led to great products and
break-neck innovation. "They're constantly improving their services and making
it better. I like that lifestyle," he says.
He's not bothered by the cache of data Google collects about each user.
"There's no evidence that they're abusing your privacy," he says.
Instead, he points to ways it can make browsing easier - for instance, the new
product Google Now, a predictive service which is promoted as being "always one
step ahead" of the user.
Google Now uses personal data and GPS information to determine users' routines
and preferences. The program can send Android phone-users traffic updates,
weather warnings and restaurant recommendations.
"It flips the script. It doesn't take your information and [mis]use it, it
takes your information and makes your experience better," says Wilcox.
In the digital age, he argues, there is very little privacy. With that in mind,
Wilcox says he'd rather deal with a large, visible company like Google than
other less-known entities.
"At Google, I get more of a sense of what they know about me than some other
companies." he says. "That's a different kind of trade-off."
In a statement, a Google spokesperson said: "We don't sell our users' personal
information. It's simply not how we operate."