Goodbye, Google

This month's CyberAdvisor covers these four main topics:

• Decentralizing from Big Tech
• Essential iPhone security 
• Living with your VPN
• Hacking smart homes

It's been known for a long time - Big Tech is an abuser of enormous power and influence, an exploiter of privacy and personal information, and consistently clever in their dishonesty with the rest of society. And exhibit "A" for Big Tech's misbehavior has always been Google.

But earlier this year, Apple's new privacy policies forced Google's hand to reveal the extent of their data collection. Now we see how truly awful the worst of the worst is.

You can click here to see facts about the extent of Google's data collection practices. Still, in a nutshell, you'll find it's pretty much everything - including information unrelated to their products and information about your contacts.

If you use their products, Google knows:

• what you look like
• what you sound like
• your beliefs
• who you’re likely to vote for
• your sexual tendencies
• your financial status
• your health condition

In addition, they know where you are, where you’ve been, and where you will likely go next. Google also controls all your ‘content’ – pictures, videos, audio files, and documents. And, if they don’t like your content, they can unilaterally lock you out.

These data collection practices store enormous volumes of data subjected to algorithms and AI software for analysis and engineering. With goals of maximizing their power and profits, Google, in turn, shows you the internet they want you to see. All this, conducted by unaccountable parties holding your data for an indefinite time. Such is your contractual agreement using Google's products.

Google even scans the emails of non-subscribers who send emails to Gmail accounts. These are people that have not signed up for Gmail, yet their information is collected, stored, analyzed, and sold by Google. 

“Google doesn’t care about protecting user privacy, they care about protecting their surveillance business model. If they really cared about privacy, they would just stop spying on billions of people around the world.”

DuckDuckGo earlier this year when Google finally revealed their data collection practices.

✓  Google is a massive commercial surveillance system without accountability and with a consistent record of overreach and deception.

De-centralize Your Digital Self

Anyone concerned with privacy and personal security and desires some level of individual autonomy must recognize the stakes with Big Tech. Fortunately, individuals have choices and can take alternative actions that de-centralize from Big Tech's grasp and takes back a meaningful chunk of your digital life.

The obvious place to start with de-centralizing from Big Tech is with Google. And the most effective first step is removing the Chrome browser from your devices.

✓ If Google is a spider, Chrome is its web.

"When you sync your Google accounts to Chrome, the data slurping doesn’t stop there. Information from other Google-owned products including its email service Gmail and Google search can be combined to form a scarily accurate picture"

Kate O'Flaherty, Wired Magazine, June 6^th, 2021

 

“Why does a web browser need my financial data? I think that says it all really. I really struggle to think of a suitable justification for that.”

Security researcher Sean Wright, Forbes, May 20th, 2021

✓ For alternatives to the Big Three browsers, Firefox, Brave, and DuckDuckGo, do not collect or share any of your information

Next, Delete Google Maps

Switching from Google Maps to Apple Maps is another key move to de-centralize from Google. When granular detail about everything in your life is coupled with location data, it's hard to exaggerate the potential repercussions from Google Maps' data collection machine. 

So powerful is this data, Google has been caught time and again lying and covering up its location-sharing practices. The company even engineered Maps to fool users into believing they could control and disable tracking when in fact, the function is always on whether you're using it or not and without regard for personal user settings.

✓  For a leveraged effect when moving away from Google, delete its Maps apps from your devices

Fire Your Gmail Account

We're sure to sound like a broken record by now, but it stands that one of the smartest and most effective ways to de-centralize from Big Tech is by refusing to use their email accounts. 

We call it 'privatizing' and believe nothing is more critical for privacy and security today than taking back your inbox from Google and other "free" email accounts.

When you privatize email, you regain ownership and control of your personal information - now considered the "new oil" and the most valuable commodity on Earth.

We're big advocates for privatizing email as a primary strategy to avoid cybercrime and increase privacy, and it's one of the first things we do for a new client at TDS. More on private email, here, and for a deeper dive into why it's time to fire Gmail, here.

✓  For the long run, privatizing personal email is the most effective way to protect your privacy and personal information from Big Tech and avoid cybercrime and damages.

Cyber Risk with Smart Homes

How's this for a fact of the month?